HeartCatch Pretty Cure - Just Live More REDUX
by OathToOblivion
Summary: Rewrite of the original. Some force is bringing the Riders of Kamen Rider Gaim to the world of Pretty Cure, and they all have their own agendas. It's up to our heroes to team up with the HeartCatch Pretty Cure and defend that world against all that seek to commit evil deeds. Because This Is Their Stage Now!
1. Episode 01 - The Orange Samurai Debuts!

**_Symbolic Joker_ : MWUAHAHAHAHA! AND IT ALL! STARTS! AGAIN!**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: Yep. And this time, we know Gaim. This time, the Gaidens are being taken into account. Here we go, all over again!  
**

 ** ** _Symbolic Joker_ : **But I swear to God, though... if there's a Gaim Gaiden 3 after this...**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: If there's a Gaim Gaiden 3, I'm going to give up and do every single other story in the SOTRC instead.**

 ** ** _Symbolic Joker_ : **And I'm just going to focus on the crazy multi x-over idea that may or may not be introduced to you all through this story, plus Riku SAM Jamillion's Paint the World In Your Colors, along with my college duties.**

 **...**

 **CURSE YOU, SCHOOL!**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: And with that in mind, let's get started...again!**

* * *

 _ **Let's Ride! This is Our Stage Now!**_

* * *

 _ **HeartCatch Pretty Cure – Just Live More REDUX  
**_

 _ **Episode 01 – Precure no Sekai?! The Orange Samurai Debuts!**_

"U-Ugh..." A figure winced as he awoke, the bright sunlight shining in his face. He blinked in confusion at this, before immediately sitting up. Looking around, he seemed to be at what appeared to be some kind of park. "Where am I? I don't remember sleeping outside," the figure said to himself in confusion. As he got to his feet, he looked around. There didn't seem to be anybody nearby. The figure immediately started thinking about the circumstances leading up to this event.

 _'Let's see. I rewatched Day of the Doctor, which was still Awesome! Saw Drive 45 subbed. FUCK YOU, BANNNO! I hate you with the intensity of a trillion burning suns! Caught up with Joker, Zero's still stuck in his own ideas, CB's stuck with Pokemon, Stranger's playing video games, and Zeta is busy with his Drive/Neptunia thing. I think I was about to ask Ross how he was doing with Melody of Desire, then I... I... What was I doing?'_ It was then that he realized that he couldn't remember anything after that. What had happened?

"Well, no use standing around here," he decided, stepping forward. No sooner than he had done that, though, that he heard a bit of a crunch sound. Lifting his foot up, he saw what he had stepped on. "A Sengoku Driver?" he asked in confusion, bending down to pick it up. It was indeed a Sengoku Driver. It looked the same as the ones used in the show; mainly black with an indent in the middle, the Drive Bay. The silver Lock On Arm extended out above the Drive Bay. It had a blank faceplate on the left, with the fruit knife-like Cutting Blade on the right. But that wasn't all.

"Lockseeds too?" the figure said, placing the Sengoku Driver under his armpit so as to lift the fruit-shaped padlocks off the ground. They were all of Gaim's regular Lockseeds that had been used throughout the show, with no Energy ones or any of the other Lockseeds to be seen.

Orange. Pine(apple). Ichigo (Strawberry). Suika (Watermelon).

Each Lockseed was here, complete with the image of the fruit they represented on the front and their L.S. serial code stamped on the front. Orange being L.S. – 07, Pine: L.S. – 05, Ichigo: L.S. – 06, and Suika: L.S. – 10.

"Strange. People don't just leave merchandise like this lying around for some schmuck like me to take," the figure noted to himself. Just as he was about to think more on this, a strange glowing light erupted not far from where he was. He was of two minds about that after the shock died down. "Hmm. I _could_ do the smart thing and go the other way. But on the other hand, if TV and video games have taught me anything, it's that that's probably important. And that people in this situation will get involved with important things regardless of whether they want to or not," he commented. So, he left to go find out what was going on.

* * *

As the figure came up to where the light had emanated from, he paused. He kind of had to considering what he was seeing. Specifically, a giant doll plastering a girl with pink hair into the ground. The floating fairies and the elderly woman did nothing else to dissuade what he was seeing. But it was impossible!

 _'If I'm not actually dreaming, then that girl that got smashed into the ground is really Hanasaki Tsubomi, Cure Blossom. But how?! This is the World of Pretty Cure, isn't it? How am I here?!'_ he thought frantically. It certainly didn't feel anything like a dream; not that he could remember any of his dreams to begin with. But the fact remained; how had he appeared here? It didn't matter much to him, as he was panicking.

 _"Oh man oh man. If I'm really in the actual Precure World, then I'm in a_ lot _of trouble. I don't have powers or anything; I don't have any defense against the baddies of this World-Wait a second.'_ It was then that his thoughts turned to what he was carrying with him. He just _happened_ to be by the site of an Anime-come-to-life and just _happened_ to have what seemed to be toys from some other series? He'd read fanfics like this before, and if what happened there had happened now... "...Could this be a real Sengoku Driver?" he whispered to himself, holding it out in front of him. _'But at the same time, if I do this, there's no turning back. Not to mention, won't this mess up the story if I interfere? What if my doing this results in Erika not being purified, or not wanting to be Cure Marine?!'_ It was obvious to anyone who was noticing him that he was panicking. Luckily, the choice was taken out of his hands by what happened next.

Blossom's other opponent, the Desert Apostle Sasorina, was holding something in her hand. She fiddled with it, opening a mid-air zipper and releasing ELEMENTARY INVES?! It was indeed members of the Kaijin species of Kamen Rider Gaim in their first forms. Their bodies were lumpy and grey, with weird faces on the front. They came in three different types that were signified by color; red, blue, and green. But there wasn't really much difference between them; they were just dumb animals.

The person watching crept closer to get a better look at what Sasorina was holding. His suspicions were confirmed, as it turned out to be a Himawari (Sunflower) Lockseed, L.S. - 00, with the image of a sunflower seed. This confused him enormously. _'Wait, I thought only Riders could summon physical Inves with Lockseeds! And how did she summon so many with just one? She's definitely not a Genesis Rider!'_ It didn't make much sense to him that that was even possible. But the fact remained that she had done it. What was he going to do now?

 _'If I go down this road, there's no turning back. I will have to fight. But something's definitely fishy here that Sasorina has a Lockseed, so_ somebody _has to do something. After all, this is outside the Precure's context; it'll take someone who recognizes it to figure out what's going on. That, and I'm a nice guy like that, unlike certain people I can think of...'_

* * *

Meanwhile, in the country of Malaysia on a world parallel to the World of Pretty Cure, a certain someone blinked as strange feelings overtook him while he was staring at his Kamen Rider Drive merchandise when he should be instead getting ready for college.

"…Why...do I have the sudden urge to go on a murderous rampage?" he asked himself in confusion. "I mean, I know I hate school and all, but I've never felt like this before..." he muttered to himself.

* * *

At any rate, it looked like Tsubomi, AKA Cure Blossom, was about to say something to Sasorina. "Not only do you make Erika suffer, but the flowers too. I-I'M NOT GOING TO PUT UP WITH THIS!" she yelled. _'Well, that definitely looks like a good spot. Time for an entrance, I guess.'_

He came out of his hidey-hole, clapping as he did so. Everyone in the scene paused what they were doing as they noticed his appearance. As he walked forward, he couldn't help but comment. "You know, that's what I like about you Precure. Even if it looks hopeless, you don't give up," he noted.

"Who the hell are you?!" Sasorina asked in confusion.

The figure ignored her and walked near Blossom. "You know, I originally was just going to watch. I had absolute faith you'd win, Cure Blossom," he confided. Blossom was shocked.

"Eh?! Really?" she asked.

"Of course," the figure nodded. "But then I saw _them_." At that, he pointed at the Inves. "I don't what Inves are doing here, but you can't focus on both them and that Desertrian this early in your career," he pointed out.

"Hey, how do you know what they are?!" Sasorina demanded. Again, the figure ignored her and walked forward.

"So, I decided I'd help you out. You tackle the giant doll, and I'll deal with the lumpy things. So, shall we get started?" he said rhetorically, bringing out the Sengoku Driver and putting it on his waist. A yellow belt strap zoomed out of one end, wrapping around his waist and connecting to the other side. With the sound of a horn, the faceplate flashed. A helmet formed on it, with a rainbow visor and a yellow pattern seen behind it. This was the Rider Indicator of Kamen Rider Gaim! _'Makes sense considering I have his Lockseeds,'_ he thought to himself.

Sasorina was shocked at the appearance of it. "Why do you have that?! If you have that, you're supposed to be one of _our_ allies!" she snarled.

While Blossom flinched at that, the figure just frowned. "Really? Somebody on your side has a Sengoku Driver too, huh?" he asked. "Probably the same person who gave you that Himawari Lockseed, right?" he guessed.

Sasorina was taken aback. "How do you know that?!" she yelled.

The figure rolled his eyes and put his arms together into a mock-thinking pose. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because you just told me so?" he pointed out. At this, Sasorina gritted her teeth in anger at her blunder.

The figure then brought out his Orange Lockseed in his right hand and held it across his face. "No getting off this train now. Time to push forward," he declared, flicking the switch on the side to open the Lockseed.

 **ORANGE!**

With that announcement, in one fluid motion he twirled it around and slapped it into the Drive Bay. He then closed it over the Lock On Arm.

 **LOCK ON!**

With that declaration, a zipper opened in the air, releasing, "A giant orange?!" Blossom asked in shock. Also, Japanese horagai music started playing from the Driver; a sort of Standby Tune. The twin Fairies, Chypre and Coffret, started dancing around at this. The figure shook his head at this; was this really the time?

"Henshin!" he declared, pulling the Cutting Blade down. The Orange Lockseed opened at a hinge to reveal two images inside. The top looked like what an actual orange would look like if cut open, while the bottom showed a sword that looked like an orange slice. The bottom image also formed a holographic rainbow-colored image of itself over the actual image.

 **SOIYA!**

As the belt declared that, the Orange dropped down as if to cover his head. But Sasorina had seen this before. "Like I'm going to let you!" she declared, tossing her ponytail at him. It wasn't any ordinary one though, as it extended and seemed to end in a scorpion's tail! As he saw this, the figure widened his eyes. Instinctively, he placed his arm up so that the Orange would fall on it, and placed it in front of him like a shield. The Orange opened up like a fan blade, spinning to stop the thrusts of the stinger-ponytail, and kicking up a dust cloud.

Sasorina retracted her ponytail, growling at the fact that the ends were all frayed now. Blossom had covered her eyes at the dust cloud that was kicked up, but as it cleared, everybody widened their eyes. They saw what appeared to be a samurai with a blue bodysuit with gold markings on the legs and arms. He had golden arm and leg guards, as well as a golden crescent on his helmet. The helmet completely covered his face and had an orange visor reminiscent of an orange slice. Orange armor folded down over his front as well as his shoulders. As this happened, an announcement was heard.

 **ORANGE ARMS: HANAMICHI ON STAGE!  
(ORANGE ARMS: FLOWERED PATH ON STAGE!)**

"'Hanamichi'?" Blossom wondered.

"Well well. I don't believe it. Another Rider," her grandmother, Hanasaki Kaoruko muttered to herself. Blossom heard her though.

"'Rider'?" Blossom asked in confusion. But at that point, the armor had finished folding down over the Rider. In a splash, three things happened. First, a black katana formed into being on his left. For some strange reason, it also had a trigger and gun barrel on it. This was the Musou Saber. On his right, a black holder of sorts formed with the other three Lockseeds he had clipped on. This was obviously his Lockseed Holder. And in his right hand, the orange slice sword seen in the cut-open Lockseed appeared in a flash of orange light. This was the Daidaimaru. This was Kamen Rider Gaim!

"I have just one thing to say here," Gaim started, resting the Daidaimaru behind his neck. "Koko kara wa ore no stage da (This is my stage now)!" he declared, rushing into battle. Blossom would have said something, but she was then distracted by the Doll Desertrian.

* * *

Gaim immediately rushed into the fray of Elementary Inves, swinging the Daidaimaru around like a madman. Normally, that wouldn't really work, but since there were so many in the group, it felled a couple. He shook his head as he skidded to a halt. Now was not the time to act all crazy. But still, he was an actual honest-to-goodness Kamen Rider now! That's awesome! Nevertheless, he calmed down and held the Daidaimaru properly. It was then that the Inves finally reacted. Groaning out strange noises, they ran at the samurai Rider, clawing at him with their large hands.

Gaim reacted fairly well, blocking their claws with the Daidaimaru ("Hah! Yah!"), kicking them back when they started getting too close, and slashing away when he could. However, he gradually started getting swarmed, until the entire group of Inves was practically right on top of him. "Get. OFF ME!" he yelled, shifting the Daidaimaru to his left hand so he could draw the Musou Saber with his right.

Using both swords, he managed to knock the group off of him, causing them to stumble. Quickly, he connected the ends of both swords together into their Naginata Mode. Using the double-ended sword, he performed quick circle slashes ("Yah! Hah! Orya!") to quickly take out the group encircling him. But more jerked forward at him. Seeing as they were the last ones here, Gaim saw a chance. He removed the Orange Lockseed from his Driver, causing it to let off a notification that he did so.

 **LOCK OFF!**

Then, he put the Lockseed into the Drive Bay on the Musou Saber. Or, to be more accurate, the Drive Launch. No, I don't know why it's called that either. Regardless, he slammed it shut over the Saber's Lock On Arm.

 **LOCK ON!**

 **Ichi! Juu! Hyaku! Sen! Man!  
(1! 10! 100! 1,000! 10,000!)  
**

As it counted up, Gaim fired twin energy slashes ("Ha! Orya!") from the Musou Saber end of the Naginata at the approaching Inves, trapping them in a large sphere that looked like an orange. Just as he did, the counting finished, and the Saber announced the name of the Fruits Charge.

 **ORANGE CHARGE!**

At this, Gaim readied himself. "Here comes the finish! **Naginata Musou Slicer!** Sei-ha!" he declared, rushing forward the Daidaimaru end pointed towards them. He slashed through the sphere, destroying the Inves and sending holographic orange slices everywhere! He panted heavily as the adrenaline high wore off. He took the Lockseed off the Musou Saber and reattached it to his Driver.

 **LOCK ON!**

With that done, he then separated the two swords, sheathing the Musou Saber. As he calmed down, he noticed Cure Blossom using her finishing move, the **Precure Pink Forte Wave** , to purify the giant doll and release the Heart Flower it had been formed from, as well as the regular doll that had been used as a host. He sighed in relief at this. _'Oh good, Erika was saved right on schedule. Now, hopefully, she'll become Cure Marine like she's supposed to,'_ he thought to himself.

 _'Anyway, I can't believe that I was able to do that! That was so cool! Looks like swinging sticks around like swords really does come in handy!'_

He then walked over to where they were, just in time to notice Sasorina in a crater, her Himawari Lockseed utterly destroyed. "H-How did this get broken so easily?!" she stammered.

Gaim couldn't help but speak up at this. "Well, that's what you get for using a piece of D-class trash. Unlike my A-class Orange, a D-class like Himawari is easily destructible," he mocked.

Sasorina gritted her teeth in extreme anger before remembering about her _other_ annoyance. "Curse you, Precure, as well as you, Armored Warrior! Next time we meet, I'll strike you both down with my poison stinger!" And with that said, she teleported out of there. Meanwhile, Blossom gave back the crystal containing Kurumi Erika's Heart Flower to the orb containing her body, which returned her to normal, although she was unconscious.

After a pensive stare at the person who was just rescued, Gaim then turned to Blossom. "Nice work with that," he complimented.

"Um, thanks?" she almost asked.

"Hey, relax, I'm not a bad guy," Gaim laughed, closing up the Orange Lockseed. With it closed, this sent a signal to the Driver to revert transformation, so it did. In a flash of orange light, Gaim's armor vanished.

"But, just who are you?" Blossom couldn't help but wonder, as she unconsciously powered down herself.

The figure gave her a thumbs up. "They call me Kamen Rider Gaim!" he declared with pride. And let's face it, wouldn't you be if you had the ability to turn into a Rider?

"I never thought I'd see another Rider again," Hanasaki Kaoruko commented as she walked up. "You wear that armor well, young man," she complimented.

The figure rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Eh heh. Thanks, uh, I didn't exactly get your names," he lied. Actually, he did know their names, but if he were to say them without being prompted, they'd probably ask uncomfortable questions.

"Ah, how rude of me. I am Hanasaki Kaoruko, and this is my granddaughter, Tsubomi, the new Cure Blossom," Kaoruko introduced. As for Tsubomi, she was rather embarrassed herself. As well as slightly shocked at all that had happened.

"Nice to meet you both! As for myself, I'm..." _'Oh crap! Name, tell them name! But I don't want to just give my name out! World travel, name! My name is-!'_ "...Kadoya Tsukasa," he introduced. _'And that is NOT my name, brain! Oh well, if I change it now, they'll probably wonder why I couldn't even remember my own name properly. Guess I'm stuck with it now,"_ the newly dubbed Tsukasa thought to himself.

"Um, you don't really look like a Kadoya Tsukasa," Tsubomi hesitatingly pointed out. Tsukasa was silent at this, before he sighed.

"Saw right through me, didn't you?" he said rhetorically. "Truth be told, that's not my real name. But, it's the name that fits this situation, so that's the name I'm using. I guess I could've also used Kazuraba Kouta too, but that would be too cliche for something of this situation," he mumbled to himself.

"But why not just use your real name?" the floating blue fairy, Coffret asked. He was going to be the partner of Erika when she became Cure Marine. Speaking of...

"Before I answer that, I don't think that's a good place for her to be lying," Tsukasa said, drawing attention to the fact that Erika was still just lying on the ground unconscious.

"Ah! Erika!" Tsubomi cried out in remembrance, picking her friend's body off of the ground.

"Why don't we continue this as we take Erika to my Botanical Garden?" Kaoruko offered.

Tsukasa shrugged. "I'm down with that," he agreed.

* * *

"So you used that name because-?"

"Kadoya Tsukasa is the name of someone who traveled between many Worlds. Since I've somehow come to this one, it only made sense to use his name."

"But you said he travels Worlds, right? What if he comes here and finds out?" Tsubomi asked as they walked back to the Botanical Gardens. Tsukasa had offered to carry Erika for her, but Tsubomi had insisted. Seeing that Look, Tsukasa had left her alone about the subject.

Tsukasa shrugged at that question. "Well, I happen to be a huge fan of his, so I'm sure he'll understand if I explain things. Besides, I don't think he's encountered Gaim yet, so he'll probably more focused on finding out more about my Rider powers."

His attention then turned to the other Hanasaki in the group. "Anyway, Mrs. Hanasaki, you said you've met Riders before?" he asked.

"Yes. Riders have been in this town for the past year. Two have been helping the Desert Apostles, while the other helped Cure Moonlight against them," she said.

"Did you ever get their Rider names?" Tsukasa asked.

"I did meet the one who worked with Moonlight, once. He said his name was Kurokage," she revealed.

"Kurokage, huh? He's another of my type of Rider. He uses the Matsubokkuri (Pine Cone) Lockseed. Although, stat-wise, he's technically the weakest. So much that they eventually used his design as troop cannon fodder. He must have had a lot of trouble at first," Tsukasa commented.

"From what I heard from Moonlight, he did. But he got better fairly quickly, and was a rather skilled fighter," Kaoruko reminisced.

"Do you happen to know where he is? If I could meet him, then-." Tsukasa was cut off when a flash of light shone out, causing everyone to cover their eyes. An "OOF!" sound was heard, and as the light died down, the group was shocked to find that Tsukasa was now on the ground, and some strange figure was now lying on top of him.

"Mr. Tsukasa! Are you alright?!" Tsubomi asked in shock.

"I'm fine," he groaned, pushing this new figure off of him. "Who the heck is this guy?" he wondered. The new figure had black hair, cargo pants and a red sleeveless hoodie on. He was unconscious to boot. As Tsukasa looked at him, he noticed some things next to him. "Hm?" he wondered, picking them up.

Tsubomi recognized them. "Wait, aren't those-?"

"Yeah. It's a Sengoku Driver," Tsukasa proclaimed. It was indeed a Sengoku Driver, with a blank Rider Indicator. There were also a couple of Lockseeds with it, and Tsukasa recognized them immediately. "Banana and Mango. I think this guy is Kamen Rider Baron," he guessed. Well, he couldn't know for sure because the Rider Indicator was blank, but Occam's Razor and all.

"Another Rider?" Tsubomi wondered.

"Yeah. He's the second, well, third Rider I found out about from my type. He's knight-themed, and is roughly on par with me as Gaim. It's strange though...I feel as though I know him from somewhere," he said pensively.

"From where?" Tsubomi asked in confusion.

"That's the thing; I don't know. It's just a feeling I have," Tsukasa said in irritation. He shook his head. "At any rate, let's get both him and Erika-san inside," he pointed out. And with that, he picked up the unconscious person. _'Still though, this was been fairly interesting. Being sent to Precure no Sekai, becoming a Rider. I wonder what'll happen next?'_ In time to come though, he'd find out. And he wouldn't like it...

 _ **Episode 01 - Fin**_

* * *

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: So, you people who have read the previous version may have noticed that this chapter looked a little familiar. That's because this is based on an already revised version of the original chapter 1. Minor edits include removed Gratuitous Japanese, such as honorifics. Eagle-eyed viewers will also notice that a certain plot point from the original is also missing, namely our lack of knowledge about Gaim.**

 _ **Symbolic**_ _ **Joker**_ **:** **Well, yeah. Our constant delays got so bad that Gaim's direct successor, Drive, has almost reached its end!**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **:** **Yeah...Kamen Rider Ghost looks pretty interesting too. Hopefully, we won't take that long to get back up to where we were, though (we are totally going to take twice as long).**

 _ **Symbolic**_ _ **Joker**_ **:** **But! As Kamen Rider fans we should take the time to pay our respects to those sacrifice their lives to stop the devil that is Banno (Still cannot believe Ichigo Kurosaki is... Banno).**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: Yeah. R.I.P Chase: Kamen Rider Proto-Drive, Mashin Chaser, Kamen Rider Chaser. You were one of the most awesome characters in Drive. ...He's totally coming back for the Movie War though. He definitely backed his memories into Signal Chaser like how they were in Shift Proto-Speed.**

 **Seriously though, I honestly think he's going to come back at some point. The Roidmudes' Cores are more likely than not their Core Driviars. Obviously, Krim knows how to make Core Driviars.**

 _ **Symbolic**_ _ **Joker**_ **: If that was the case though, then Krim would've just built a new Proto-Zero and continued from where they left off. Heck, with Rinna joining him, he would've definitely had "hands" to create a new body for a back-up of Proto-Zero. Sure, the memories would be in Shift Speed Prototype, but wouldn't Krim have saved the memories in another back-up, like say inside the Drive Pit's computers?**

 **Also; you're forgetting somebody else. Someone who didn't get to finish his last words.**

 **...BTW people, but I can't help but mention this due to reading on TV Tropes. Chase... plus Heartbreak equals to Manly Tears.**

 ** _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: I guess you have a point.** At any rate...**

 **Next time on** _ **HeartCatch Precure - Just Live More Redux**_ **:** _ **Knight of Spear! Cure Marine takes the Stage!**_

 **And we will see you guys in the next episode! Bye-bye! (Why yes, I did rip off Markiplier right there. Why? I felt like it.)  
**


	2. Episode 02 - Knight of Banana!

_**OathToOblivion : **_**You know, I was feeling great about how we were fixing up JLM so it could be the very best, like no story ever was. And then Mr. "Please update" appeared _on the first chapter barely two hours after I posted._** **Why me-? -sigh- I guess it doesn't really matter though.**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : ...Well, at least this guy is a dedicated fan?**

 _ **OathToOblivion : **_**Maybe. It's still friggin' annoying though. Anyway, you guys know the drill here. Here comes Episode 2 for the _third_ and hopefully final time now. **

**_Symbolic Joker_ : Well, as they say: "Third time's the charm". I'm feeling good about this one. Course, I'll probably be changing my tune when we pick up where we left off, but meh. Let's go shoot this shit.**

 **...I may be watching too much Smosh... nah.**

* * *

 _ **Let's Ride! This is Our Stage Now!**_

* * *

 _ **HeartCatch Pretty Cure – Just Live More REDUX  
**_

 _ **Episode 02**_ _ **–**_ _ **Knight of Ba~nana! Cure Marine Takes the Stage!**_

"Ugh," a voice groaned out as its owner awoke. It was the new male who had appeared earlier. He massaged his head, trying to think of what had happened. _'The last thing I remember was messing with my Drive merchandise and then suddenly I felt the urge to go on a murderous rampage and then … a blank. That can't be good. I can't remember what happened next-Wait, where am I anyway? Am I still in my room? Doubt it.'_

As the blurriness plaguing him went away, he was able to see what was around him. He noted the elderly woman with brown hair, and the girl (with pink hair? Must have dyed it) next to her. Before he could note anything else though, he felt something soft. Wondering what it was, he turned to see it. His first thought that it was blue. Then he realized it was hair. Following the hair to its source, he found that it belonged to a sleeping girl that looked a few years younger than him who was using his shoulder as a pillow. Seeing this, there was really only one thing he could do.

Blush bright red like a tomato and spring away from her as fast as he could. While the elderly woman in front of him chuckled, he heard deeper snickering behind him. Turning around, he noticed an older male, probably about 20, standing nearby. He had black hair and was wearing brown cargo pants, a black shirt, and a red jacket. Actually, they probably could have passed as siblings now that he thought about it, if it wasn't for the fact that he didn't have any brothers.

"Oh good, you're awake. Mrs. Hanasaki, do you mind if I take him outside to talk to?" the other male in the room asked of the elderly woman.

"Of course, Tsukasa. He's probably confused about things right now," the woman said.

 _'Hanasaki. That sounds...familiar,'_ the figure thought. Anyway, she was right. He was confused. And it looked like this Tsukasa guy was his best bet of finding answers. He followed Tsukasa out of the place, which looked a little like a greenhouse now that he thought about it. Once they were outside, Tsukasa turned to him.

"Guess things are a bit confusing for you right now, huh? I'm Kadoya Tsukasa, nice to meet you," he said.

The figure gave him a deadpan. "You look nothing like Kadoya Tsukasa," he pointed out.

Tsukasa rolled his eyes. "Oh don't start. It was the first name that popped into my head when I gave it to those two, so now I'm stuck with it," he groused.

At this, the figure raised one of his eyebrows as he didn't peg the person in front of him as a fellow Kamen Rider fan. But he supposed that such a meeting wasn't impossible, just highly improbable. "But still, _Decade's_ name of all things?" the figure inquired.

"What?! World travel was involved: it made perfect sense!" Tsukasa said defensively. Hold it. What?

"'World travel'? You...traveled between Worlds?" the figure questioned sharply.

"Not via my own will. Something's brought me, and you, here to this World. Haven't you wondered how you got here?" Tsukasa pointed out.

The figure was silent, trying to wrap his head around it. So he wasn't in his own World anymore, huh? This was starting to sound like those self-insert fanfictions he likes to read so much.

"Where are we...really?" the figure asked, keeping his tone of voice controlled. He was hoping to whoever was listening that they weren't in the same World as Highschool of the Dead, or any other fictional series that revolved around a zombie apocalypse. He did _not_ want to deal with such an event. Not now, not ever.

"We're in the World of Pretty Cure," was Tsukasa's response. The figure sighed a sigh of relief at that. He did his research about the franchise once in a while, but never really did manage to watch one of its series till the end. Heck, most of the time he never even makes it to the 10 episode mark!

But still, from what he had read of the franchise, living in the Pretty Cure World wasn't really that bad at all. With the exception of the occasional monster attack, it'd be very similar to his own World, right?

"But, there are changes. Bad changes," Tsukasa grimly pronounced.

"What kind of changes?" the figure wondered.

"For starters, you need to know two things. First, we're in the timeframe of HeartCatch Pretty Cure," Tsukasa explained.

"HeartCatch. Well, that would explain why you called that old lady Mrs. Hanasaki," the figure deduced, thinking back to the brown-haired old woman and the pink-haired girl next to her. Pinkie must've been Hanasaki Tsubomi, Cure Blossom of the Heartcatch Pretty Cure, and the old lady next to her was her grandmother, who was a former Pretty Cure herself.

"The second is a bit more involved. I can already tell you know about Kamen Riders from the fact that you mentioned Decade, but do you know about Gaim?" Tsukasa asked of him.

"Yeah. Why?" the figure wondered, not liking where the conversation was heading.

"Then you obviously recognize this," Tsukasa concluded, bringing out his Sengoku Driver.

The figure stayed quiet for a moment as he stared at Tsukasa's Sengoku Driver. "...Okay, why do you have a random toy?" the figure asked in fake confusion, pretending not to get the point. In reality though, he was thinking to himself how the situation was similar to an average Kamen Rider crossover fanfiction. He had the feeling he knew exactly where this conversation was heading...

...And it excited him, as well as frightened him at the same time.

"It's not a toy. Or maybe it was; I don't know. But if that was the case, it isn't anymore," Tsukasa explained, putting on his waist. The strap zoomed around him in a yellow light. This shocked the younger male enough that he took a step back, taking a deep breath from his shock.

"T-That's... a real Sengoku Driver. You... Y-You're Gaim," he stuttered as he mind just went blank. He couldn't think of anything else but, ' _This is real. This... is... real-!_ '

Tsukasa nodded. "Yeah. That brings me to the bad thing I mentioned. The Desert Apostles seem to have their own Kamen Riders, who are supplying them with Lockseeds and Inves."

"WHAT?!"

"I know, and that makes me worried. I wasn't going to help out originally because I didn't want to mess things up. But if they have Kamen Riders on their side..."

"...It's up to any good Rider to put a stop to them, right?"

"Right," Tsukasa agreed, bringing out another Sengoku Driver, this one with a blank Indicator.

"Another one? Why would you have another one? What Rider needs two copies of the same Driver?" the figure questioned.

Tsukasa shook his head. "This isn't mine. I found this on you when you appeared," he said, tossing it at him. The figure caught it in curiosity, then also caught the two Lockseeds he also threw at him. Glancing at them, the figure realized that they were Banana: L.S. - 08, and Mango: L.S. - 11. He then realized what this meant.

"I'm supposed to be Baron?" he questioned in trepidation, as he lowered his head to the point his fringes covered his eyes.

"Looks like. Listen, I realize this is a lot to ask of you, but you gotta help me out here. I can't do this by myself," Tsukasa admitted. He then quickly added, "Kurokage is also here, apparently, and helped Cure Moonlight. If we can find him, he'll be able to help out too, since he has a full year's experience."

"I..." the figure trailed off.

"Look. Do you have a name I can call you by? I don't just want to keep calling you 'you'," Tsukasa interrupted his thoughts. The figure wracked his mind for a name to use; if this guy wasn't using his real name, then he wouldn't either.

"Sora," he finally said.

"Just Sora?" Tsukasa wondered.

"Yeah, just Sora," the newly-dubbed Sora said. Tsukasa shrugged: it was his choice.

"Seriously though, will you fight alongside me to ensure this World's protection and defend it against anything that would harm it?" Tsukasa offered, holding out his hand to shake.

Sora grimaced as he tried to think of what to do. _' This is...what I always dreamed of. Finally... I'm free from it all. ...But-'_ He stared at his Sengoku Driver, _his_ Sengoku Driver, and the two Lockseeds in his hand. ' _Am I..._ really _worthy enough to bear the Kamen Rider name? Even if I'm like Kaito... won't I just... get in the way? I-'_

"Tsukasa..." Sora began.

"Yes?" Tsukasa perked up, hoping his fellow Rider fan would agree. He really _really_ didn't want to have to do this on his own!

"I... don't want to be a Rider."

"..."

"..."

"...WHAT?!"

* * *

 _The next day…_

"I still can't believe it," Tsukasa sighed. After fully explaining the full circumstances of himself and Sora, Hanasaki Kaoruko had decided to give them work, as well as a place to crash, at the Botanical Gardens. As a matter of fact, Tsukasa was currently sweeping the floor clean. He still couldn't believe how lucky that was that they even got the job! But it's not as though they had many options anyway.

Sora, not really fully acclimated as to what had happened, had left early that morning to try to clear his head. He specifically left his Sengoku Driver behind, although he did take both of his Lockseeds to summon an Inves for defense. Tsukasa couldn't really blame him, as he wasn't acclimated either; just hiding it better. As it happened, it had finally hit him that he was _Gaim_.

 _'I'm trapped, in a world of anime. I'll probably never see my parents or sisters again, and I've been roped into being a Kamen Rider. Sure, being a Rider is awesome, but that also carries baggage. I'm Gaim! That means Helheim! Is Sagara going after this world or what?! Why were the Desert Apostles using Lockseeds in the first place?!'_ It would be obvious to say that Tsukasa was a bit distraught. What wasn't so obvious is that he really had no idea what to do. Did he dare interfere too much when there had already been interference in the form of three Riders already, of which he only knew the Rider name of one?

 _'I mean, judging from the fact that I ended up in the middle of Episode 2 yesterday, Moonlight was probably still depowered, since Tsubomi uses her Heart Perfume. ...No, wait, Tsubomi-_ san _. Remember the honorific, brain; I'm in Japan, where that's Serious Business.'_ Being an American, Tsukasa had never needed to worry about something like that too badly. Now he was in the Land of Ultra Politeness, so he needed to be careful in how he addressed people.

Then there was the Helheim question. Sure, just because Lockseeds were around didn't necessarily mean anything. Even after Helheim left Earth alone after Gaim's series, the Armored Riders could still transform. But if it was here...

"Gaaaaah! I really don't want to think about it right now!" Tsukasa yelled at himself, clutching his head.

But going back to the initial point, Tsukasa was unsure of just how much he could alter from the original HeartCatch plot without making his foreknowledge useless. Sure, Magical Girl show, Strictly Formula, and things like that would make it obvious who the new victim would be if everything changed, but there were too many unknowns. Especially the two Riders who were working with the Desert Apostles. Personally, if it was a connected duo, he was leaning towards Zangetsu and Ryugen. After all, the first choice of duo had been rendered invalid by the simple fact that Kurokage was a good guy. Surely Gridon would be right there alongside him, wouldn't he?

Although, honestly, given how _he_ was Gaim, what he knew about the connections of the Riders of Gaim didn't have much meaning. After all, just because Mitsuzane and Takatora were brothers didn't necessarily mean this world's Ryugen and Zangetsu were, if they even existed.

 _'I guess this is what happens to people placed in a Peggy Sue situation, yet had no problem with how things ended. Do you change things to make it better for the people who suffered hardships? Or do you not change things so your knowledge stays useful in the long run? On the other hand, most of those Desertrian victims only truly found closure when they had to confront their problem after being turned into one. UGH! This just hurts my head!'_

It was then that his view turned to Sora's forgotten Sengoku Driver. _'If he really doesn't want to be a Rider, then I'll need to find someone else. I do have a good backup candidate in mind, but is it right to pull him into a fight he has no business being part of? At any rate, I still can't believe Sora doesn't want to be a Rider. Yeah, it'll have hardships, but fighting for what you believe in, to protect all that matters: isn't that worth it? I mean, I guess I can understand why he'd be afraid of it, considering Gaim and all that, but...'_ Tsukasa sighed. He was probably going to end up thinking himself into a circle again if he kept that up. And it's not like he didn't tell Sora that himself.

 _"Does it matter if you're worthy or not? What matters is that you fight for what you believe in."_

It was abundantly clear to Tsukasa that Sora had self-esteem issues, so he didn't see himself as truly worthy to carry on the name of Kamen Rider. But is that really for him to decide? Still, though, Tsukasa couldn't help but wonder just where Sora had gone.

* * *

As it turned out, Sora was walking through the streets of Kibougahana, which was the name of the town the HeartCatch Pretty Cure inhabited. Currently, he was just walking around aimlessly, wondering if he really should become Kamen Rider Baron. As he did so, he played around with his Banana Lockseed. As mentioned before, he didn't have his Sengoku Driver on him. If he put the belt on, there would be no turning back, after all, so it'd be stupid if he put it on for self-defense and a one-time thing when he could give it to someone else to fight alongside Tsukasa.

 _'Changing his name though...'_ Sora thought with a huff of amusement as he thought back to his fellow Rider fan. ' _Geez. Doesn't he think things through? He doesn't even look Japanese!'_ Knowing he was merely calling the kettle black, Sora sighed. There was really nothing he could do about it now. Sora could tell that Tsukasa was of the type that could be really stubborn about certain things. _'Though, does he really think it'll be that easy like in the show? We're here, we're going to have to fight for real. We mess up even once, not only will we be goners but the people we'll be protecting will end up dying too. Especially with Helheim on the loose,'_ the young man thought quite darkly, too busy entertaining his thoughts to pay attention to where he was going.

Unfortunately, this ultimately led to his thoughts being interrupted when he felt pain.

"Oof!" Sora cried out as he fell down. Holding his head up in pain, he saw some thugs looking down on him.

"Watch where you're going, punk!" The one in the middle, most likely the leader, told him.

"Oh. Sorry," Sora stoically said as he got up, gave a small bow of respect, and made to quickly walk away. But then one of them grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Hey! You think you could just stroll on our turf without paying the toll?!" the thug asked menacingly.

To most people, the thug's intimidation tactic would've worked. The target would've been left intimidated by the thug and his group of friends, and would try to quickly defuse the situation as quickly and in _any_ way possible.

But not Sora. His time on the Internet had made him... distorted, really. Despite the lines of thought that constantly plague him, in the end, he knew it didn't really quite matter in the grand scheme of themes.

If he lived, then he lived. If he died, then he died. Simple as that.

 _'Heh, with how goodie two-shoes the Pretty Cure world is, I didn't think these types of people existed. Guess that was wishful thinking on my part...'_ an amused Sora thought to himself, as his heart began beating faster and faster from the adrenaline rush forming from his fear and excitement of the situation.

"Look. I'm having a bit of a bad day today." Sora 'explained', though the tone of his voice and smile on his face contradicted his statement. The look in his eyes showed that he was not someone to be messed with. Unfortunately, this was something the thugs failed to pick up on due to his eyes looking like they were closed (when in fact, they were not). "So I'd appreciate it if you didn't make it worse," Sora warned them. Last night, he had found that he was a lot more agile than he used to be, not that he knew why. Maybe it was because he was in an Anime world? Oh well, at least it made it easier to deal with punks such as this.

Regardless, even if he had never gotten these perks, he would still face the thugs in front of him with the same amount of bravado he was showing them now.

It was because he was distorted, after all.

"Oh, look here, boys! We got a tough punk who thinks he's better than us!" one of them taunted.

"Remember, you idiots asked for it," Sora growled out in an almost pleased tone with an almost maniacal grin to go with it, cracking his knuckles as he did so.

Guess who won that little brawl?

* * *

Meanwhile, at Tsubomi and Erika's school, the two of them were sitting on the roof, about to have lunch. From their rooftop viewpoint, they could see all over Kibougahana, something that wowed Tsubomi.

Of course, as they were hungry, they sat down on one of the benches up there. However, as Erika was about to eat some of her food, she stopped and got a pensive look on her face.

"Hey, Tsubomi," she said.

"Yes?" Tsubomi asked in mild surprise, looking up where she was about to open her lunch bag.

Erika sighed, closing her eyes. "Recently, I've been having some kinda weird dreams," she said, opening her eyes, and bringing her fork up near her cheek. "Something about Precure-something-or-other getting defeated," she continued, much to Tsubomi's shock.

"You mean 'Cure Moonlight'?!" she hurriedly asked.

"Yeah, that, that!" Erika nodded, waving her fork around in acknowledgement.

"EHHHHH?!" Tsubomi let out in surprise. "Then, Erika's been having the same dreams as me?!" she asked in shock. And it was true: Tsubomi had had that same exact dream the day before she became Cure Blossom.

"The same dreams?" Erika wondered. It was then that something unexpected happened.

"That means she can become a Precure!" Chypre and Coffret said, leaping out of Tsubomi's bag. Tsubomi panicked as she noticed them leap out, while Erika was just dumbfounded at what appeared to be talking plushies.

"Th-The plushies are talking!" she said with wide eyes.

Tsubomi quickly picked the bag up, and looked around to see if anyone else was around. Since there was none, she put the bag back down. "Why on Earth were you in there?! And where's my LUNCH?!" she asked.

"There's more important things to worry about than that!" the two Fairies said in unison...also neatly dodging what had happened to Tsubomi's lunch.

While Tsubomi was tearing up at the loss of her lunch, the two flew next to Erika's head. "This girl has the right to become a Precure!" Chypre, the pink one, said. Coffret, the blue one, nodded his head in agreement.

As for Erika, she had a deadpan look on her face. "What's with these guys, Tsubomi?" As she said her friend's name, Erika looked at Tsubomi with a glare that demanded answers.

With a scared look on her face, Tsubomi stuttered out an answer. "T-They're the Fairies that protect the Great Heart Tree."

"I'm Coffret!" the blue one with ears out to the side said.

"And I'm Chypre!" the pink one, Tsubomi's partner Fairy with ears pointing straight up, greeted.

"Oh, so they're Fairies," Erika realized. She was still pretty flabbergasted though.

Tsubomi nodded. "So you understand now?" she asked.

Erika changed the subject as she realized something else. "You said the Great Heart Tree just now, right? Now that you mention it, that was in my dream yesterday too," she remembered.

"Erika!" Tsubomi said, bringing Erika's attention back to her. "That dream you had while you were unconscious was actually real!" Tsubomi told her, referencing what had happened yesterday. While Sora and Tsukasa had been talking, Erika had woken up, and vaguely remembered the battle her Desertrian had gotten into with Tsubomi/Blossom. However, she had simply thought it nothing more than a dream.

"And that 'Cure Blossom' that defeated the monster... is actually me!" she said in pride.

"EH?! Seriously?!" Erika asked in shock.

"Seriously!" Tsubomi said seriously.

"I can't believe that another potential Precure was so close by! Erika, become my partner Precure!" Coffret asked eagerly.

"Me, become a Precure?" Erika asked, nonplussed. Then she started remembering back to her 'dream'. "That outfit was really cool..." she reminisced.

"Wasn't it, wasn't it?! You'll become the second Precure!" Coffret said with sparkles in his eyes. It was then, however, that the door opened. Quickly, the two hid the Fairies from out of sight.

As it turned out, it was the Student Council, along with its President, Myoudouin Itsuki. Apparently, Erika had yet to turn in the member list for the Fashion Club. If she didn't turn it in soon, there would be no way for the Student Council to make their budget. As they left, Tsubomi felt slightly enamored at the presence of Itsuki, and thought that 'he' was amazing. Erika just got a sly look on her face as she told Tsubomi that 'he' was the grandson of the school's chairman, deciding to let Tsubomi figure it out herself.

Anyway, while Chypre and Coffret wanted her to be a Precure, and Erika was willing, she also said that it wasn't a good time right now, dragging Tsubomi to help her with something.

* * *

In another dimension covered in endless desert, the headquarters of the Desert Apostles sat there ominously. It looked like a ruined and twisted city, with a startling resemblance to the Curly Hill from Nightmare Before Christmas. Let's have a look inside the place, shall we?

"What was that? You say a new Precure has appeared?" In what appeared to be the throne room, a figure stood. This was Professor Sabaku, the Leader of the Desert Apostles. He had white hair, and his entire face was covered with a mask. Standing next to him was his second-in-command, Dark Precure, who had a single solitary wing on her left as well as a closed right eye. She was dressed in black and was silent and stoic.

Sasorina was at the platform below the one where his throne was, bowing down before him. "I slipped up merely because her sudden appearance caught me off-guard," she said, making her excuse.

Professor Sabaku was not very impressed, and he seemed to show little-to-no emotion at all. "If she manages to collect all the Heart Seeds, she could be quite a nuisance…" he reminded her.

Sasorina had a confident look on her face. "Worry not. Cure Blossom is but one obstacle. I should be able to defeat her easily by myself." She then proceeded to get an irritated look. "However, the fact remains is that someone has gotten their hands on a Lockseed and Sengoku Driver. He'll continue to be a pest unless he's reined in like the others."

It was then that the figure on Sabaku's right spoke up. He was slightly covered in shadows, but even then it was easy to tell that he had a Sengoku Driver as well, and the theme of his armor was based off a Durian. This was Kamen Rider Bravo! "Hmph. He'll fall in line just like _he_ did once I have Gridon take care of him. What can one fool do against us anyway?" Bravo said rhetorically. A figure covered in shadows then walked forward, flipping a Donguri (Acorn) Lockseed, L.S. - 03 in his hands.

"On it, boss. I won't let you down!" the figure declared, before heading to the back of the room and the giant zipper there. He walked through the zipper into what appeared to be an eerie forest.

Sasorina grunted, then teleported out to resume the hunt for Heart Flowers to wilt. "I shall be off then."

* * *

Meanwhile, back with Tsubomi and Erika, the thing Erika had roped Tsubomi into was recruiting for the Fashion Club, as it turns out Erika hadn't really done that herself. However, wherever they went, the answer was no. Now, it was the end of the day, and the two were lying on a hill next to a soccer field.

"In the end, we couldn't even get a single person to join," Tsubomi said sadly.

"We'll just have to try something different tomorrow!" Erika proclaimed.

"Eh?" Tsubomi wondered.

"We'll just bring in some of our shop's cool clothes and use those to..." Erika said, talking about her family's store, Fairy Drop. However, she was interrupted by an argument that sprang up on the soccer field behind them.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! No means no!" a male voice rang out. Tsubomi and Erika poked their heads up over the hill to see what was going on. The people were arguing were a girl they recognized from one of the classes they asked to join the Fashion Club, Sayaka, as well as a boy from the Soccer Club.

"I told you that girls aren't allowed in the Soccer Club!" the boy indignantly said.

"I'm begging you, please!" Sayaka pleaded.

"You're in the way of our practice," the boy rudely said, leaving. This upset Sayaka a lot, and it was not helped by Erika suddenly teleporting behind her to get her to forget about the Soccer Club and to join the Fashion Club. Seriously, she needs to work on her timing. At any rate, tears started building up in Sayaka's eyes, and she ran away crying.

A bit later, under a bridge that was also near a few soccer fields where elementary school kids were playing, Sayaka was standing there, kicking around her soccer ball. She was still distraught over everything, and was not in a good mood. While she was doing so, Sasorina poked her head down into there. Using her special vision powers given to her as a Desert Apostle, she could see that Sayaka's Heart Flower, a red Poinsettia, was starting to wilt.

As Sayaka kicked the ball again, Sasorina appeared in front of her, catching it. "I'll be taking your Heart Flower," she sinisterly declared. With a burst of her dark power, Sayaka was enveloped in it and screamed as her Heart Flower was forcibly removed. This caused the Heart Flower to be encased in a large crystal, while Sayaka's body was trapped inside a small pearl on the bottom. Almost casually, Sasorina knocked the pearl off, fusing the Heart Flower with Sayaka's soccer ball to form the Soccer Ball Desertrian!

Meanwhile, Chypre and Coffret were passing by on their way to the Botanical Gardens when they noticed this. As the Desertrian lumbered away, the quickly picked up the pearl containing Sayaka's body and flew off to tell Tsubomi.

* * *

"So, what do you think, Coupe? Is that a good idea?" Tsukasa asked of the giant Fairy that lived in the Botanical Garden. Coupe was Hanasaki Kaoruko's Fairy Partner back when she was a Precure in her youth, Cure Flower. As he was bored and had nothing of importance to do, Tsukasa was just throwing random questions at Coupe in hopes that maybe he'd answer. No such luck. Unlike his more youthful counterparts, Coupe was large, green, and silent. In fact, he barely ever moved at all, so most people who visited the Botanical Gardens thought he was a giant plush toy.

Coupe continued to remain silent. The only way Tsukasa knew that he was actually listening was that his eyes were pointed in his direction.

"Nothing, huh? I'm going to get you to crack some time, big guy," Tsukasa teased. He was about to say something else, when a splitting pain impacted his forehead. "Gkh! Gah!" he groaned out, clutching his head in pain. Coupe narrowed his eyes at this, wondering what was going on

At the same time, in an eerie and familiar forest with strange, padlock-like fruits, a girl was seen lying down, a cherry blossom in her hair. Her eyes sprung open, revealing that while her left eye was a rather normal brown, her right eye was a glowing red. She was blond, and dressed in white. She quickly got up off the ground. With a determined look, she vanished.

Back at the Botanical Gardens, Tsukasa's headache finally passed. As the pain abated, he fell on his knees. "What was that about?" he whispered. No matter the fact that he had a nasty habit of forgetting important things, he knew he had _never_ experienced anything like that. An unsettling feeling grew in his stomach. Could this be a sign of sorts? Glancing out the window, he realized the time and also realized that the fight of HeartCatch Episode 3 was likely going to happen soon. "I need to get over there, now," he decided. Grabbing his Driver and Lockseeds, he quickly ran out the door.

* * *

As it turned out, Tsubomi and Erika weren't too far from the bridge. Tsubomi was pleading with Erika to become a Precure, when they noticed the elementary school kids running away from the rolling Desertrian, which was trying to crush them with its soccer-ball-like hands.

"What the heck is that giant soccer ball?!" Erika asked in shock.

"It's Sasorina's doing!" Chypre cried as she flew up. At the human duo's shock, Coffret flew up, showing them the pearl holding Sayaka's body.

"For her to steal Sayaka-san's Heart Flower..." Tsubomi whispered, growing serious.

"Tsubomi, transform!" Chypre urged.

"Right! I'll save her!" she declared, pulling her Heart Perfume from where it was hidden on her bag. Erika made a funny face at that, not expecting that.

In a pink space filled with flowers, Tsubomi spun around in a pink energy dress, her Heart Perfume opening to reveal the slot in it. An energy burst sprang from her to the heart-shaped pendant on Chypre.

"Precure Seed, Go!" the Fairy declared, releasing the Pink Precure Seed.

Tsubomi took it and placed it in the slot, declaring, "Precure, Open My Heart!"

With it loaded, she sprayed the Heart Perfume over her, creating her Pretty Cure garbs. Her dress, her boots, and she clapped to create her gloves. Her hair then moved from its normal orientation, wrapping around itself and turning bright pink. A pink bow with a cherry blossom on it formed on her head, as well as earrings. She slapped her Heart Perfume away onto her waist.

"The Flower that Spreads Throughout the Land: Cure Blossom!" she declared, her transformation finished.

"Wow! Super cute! It's so adorable! SO COOL!" Erika fawned all over Blossom, with hearts in her eyes. With no time to waste, Blossom leaped down into the fray.

The Desertrian was advancing on the kids, their backs to the river that flowed through. Sasorina was egging it on to take its anger out on them. As it complained about why it wasn't fair that only boys could get to play soccer, it lunged its hands down on the kids, only for Blossom to deflect it, and tell them to get out of there.

"Desertrian, get her!" Sasorina declared.

The Desertrian transformed into a giant soccer ball, rolling at Blossom. With a cry of panic, Blossom tripped out of the way, the Desertrian skipping into the river. As it rose up, the river drained from it like tears coming from someone crying.

 _ **"I've loved soccer since I was a child! I thought now that I was in Junior High I'd get to keep playing as much as I like!"** _ it wailed.

"You can play soccer on your own, can't you? You really do worry about such petty things," Sasorina said dismissively.

"It's not petty!" Blossom interjected. "You're just playing with Sayaka's pure heart and her love of soccer. And I'm not going to put up with it!" she declared.

"Eh? What's with you? Just disappear already! Desertrian!" Sasorina commanded. The Desertrian then spun around, kicking up a whirlwind. Blossom tried to hold her ground, but then the Desertrian's fist came in, sending her flying into the hill where Erika was standing.

"Tsubomi!" Erika called out in worry.

 ** _"You should have a taste of my suffering!"_ ** the Desertrian threatened at Blossom as she got back up. Chypre and Coffret then used this moment to open a heart-shaped energy window to see what was going on with the Heart Flower inside. It was soon going to wilt, leaving the transformation into a Desertrian permanent, and leaving Sayaka's body trapped in that pearl forever. It was then that Erika made her decision.

"Tsubomi became a Precure to help everyone, right?" Erika asked, even as Blossom ran at the Desertrian again. At Chypre and Coffret's affirmation, she clenched her fist. "Then I'll become a Precure!" Erika declared.

"You will?" Chypre asked.

"I'm totally serious! I want to protect everyone's hearts too!" Erika proclaimed. At this, the heart-thing on Coffret started glowing, the Heart Perfume inside resonating with Erika's heart and ejecting.

With Blossom, she had been knocked into one of the soccer goals. "Desertrian, crush her!" Sasorina declared.

"I won't let you!" Erika interjected off to the side. This immediately grabbed Sasorina and the Desertrian's attention.

"Who the hell are you?!" Sasorina demanded.

"I'm Kurumi Erika, the second Precure!" Erika announced, holding her new Heart Perfume aloft.

In a transformation similar to Blossom's, a blue flowery place enveloped the space around Erika, who was wearing a blue energy dress. Like with Blossom, energy sprung from her to Coffret.

"Precure Seed, Go!" he announced, sending her the Seed.

"Precure, Open My Heart!" Erika announced, placing it into the open slot on her Heart Perfume. Like Blossom, she sprayed the Heart Perfume on her, forming her own garbs, which had blue where there was pink on Blossom's. In addition, the flower emblems on her were cyclamens. However, unlike Blossom, she simply sprayed her hands rather than clap to get her gloves. Her hair didn't change shape at all, other than lengthening and becoming wavy at the very ends and lightening in color. A blue bow appeared on top of her head, and her earrings appeared. She slapped her Heart Perfume onto her side, and struck a pose.

"The Flower that sways in the Sea Breeze: Cure Marine!" she declared.

"A second?!" Sasorina exclaimed in shock.

"Cure Marine!" Chypre proclaimed in glee.

"But how did you transform without being told how?" Coffret wondered.

"I saw it in my dream yesterday!" Marine revealed. "As for the name, when I was asked to become one this morning, I spent time thinking about it," she said. At this, she leaped down in front of Blossom. "Leave this to me! Just rest!" Marine told her.

Suddenly, trumpets were heard, distracting everyone in the battle. Everybody, including the Desertrian, looked around to see where that was coming from. Then, they noticed that a fair distance away was Gaim and a brown Rider. Sora was there as well, and above his head was a...

"Ba-Ba-Ba-Na-BANANA?!" Marine said, agape in shock. Blossom wasn't quite as shocked, as she had seen Tsukasa transform the previous day.

"It's Baron!" Sora's voice echoed from where they were. And then, there was another sound.

 **COME ON! BANANA ARMS: KNIGHT OF SPEAR!**

With that announcement made, they could faintly see the giant Banana plop down on his head, transforming him into a red Rider. But they didn't really have time to notice what was going on.

Sasorina shook herself out of it. "Why are you spacing out, Desertrian?!" she yelled hypocritically. "Get her, quickly!" she ordered. The Desertrian responded by spinning into a tornado and launching itself at Marine.

As it did, Marine decided to run at it full tilt. "That same trick won't work on me!" she declared, leaping up into the sky. "The top of your head is one big weak point!" she yelled, flying into a drop kick. The Desertrian held up its arms to guard, causing Marine to bounce off of them, but also forcing it to stop spinning.

She then leaped at it, and, after a few blocked punches, managed to kick it in the head, knocking it backwards. Marine then drew a circle in the air and punched both fists forward. **"Marine Shoot!"** she declared, sending a flurry of bubbles at the Desertrian that knocked it over.

Suddenly, there was another announcement from where the Riders were, but this time they didn't pay it much attention.

 **SOIYA! PINE ARMS: FUNSAI DESTROY!**

Blossom, being the only one who could pay attention, noticed a pineapple drop down on Gaim's head, unfolding into new armor. In the meantime, Coffret reminded Marine to take back the Heart Flower. "I know that already!" she said.

Slapping the heart emblem on the bow on her front, she summoned the Marine Tact. "Gather, Floral Power: Marine Tact!" she declared, spinning around to charge the Tact up. Spinning the dial in the middle, she sent orbs of colored light up to the very top of the Marine Tact. She waved it around her, creating blue energy waves.

"Shine, flowers! **Precure Blue Forte Wave!"** she yelled, shooting off a blue flower from the end of the Marine Tact at the Desertrian, trapping it in a giant cyclamen. Marine then rapidly spun the dial on the Tact to make the cyclamen spin and purify the Desertrian!

With it purified, the soccer ball returned to normal, and the Heart Flower was released in its crystal form, the Heart Flower itself unwilting. Sasorina just stood there, mouth agape at losing again. Blossom, having recovered, noticed that Gaim and Baron seemed to be having trouble.

"Come on! We have to help them!" Blossom urged, leaping next to Marine and pointing them out.

"Right!" Marine acknowledged. She touched the Heart Flower to the pearl containing Sayaka's body, returning it to her and bringing her body back into the real world. The two then leaped past the still frozen Sasorina over to where the Riders were fighting. But exactly what had happened over there before they did?

* * *

 _A bit earlier..._

Tsukasa rushed forward, running towards where he knew the fight was happening. _'Gotta get there fast before-!'_ he thought, before skidding to a halt as a giant zipper appeared out of nowhere in front of him. He knew exactly what this was supposed to be, but why did it appear in front of him? "Okay, Cracks don't normally materialize out in the open like this. Does that mean that this was being controlled?" he questioned, bringing out his Driver in caution.

"Well, you certainly know more than _he_ did when he appeared," a voice rang out from within. Suddenly, a figure stepped out. He was lightly tanned with brown hair and sea-green eyes. His clothes seemed to be vaguely reminiscent of hiking gear, but with a casual flair to it.

"So, you're the pest that's been popping up, huh?" he asked in a rather nasally voice.

Tsukasa was on guard regardless. "Maybe. Who are you supposed to be?" he questioned, putting his Driver on his waist.

The figure then took out a Sengoku Driver, much to Tsukasa's shock. "The guy who's going to take you out before you become enough of a threat," he threatened, putting the Driver on. Much to Tsukasa's shock, rather than the normal yellow belt strap, this other guy's Driver churned out a _silver_ belt strap around his waist. It was then he noticed the Rider Indicator on the side.

"Gridon!" he gasped in shock. It seemed his opponent was indeed the acorn-themed Rider. The silver belt made some slight sense in that case.

The figure nodded sinisterly before withdrawing his Donguri Lockseed, holding it up with his left hand. "Henshin," he declared, opening the latch on the Lockseed.

 **DONGURI!  
(ACORN!)**

In a triangular motion, he placed the Lockseed into his Driver's Drive Bay, slamming it shut over the Lock On Arm.

 **LOCK ON!**

The identified-Gridon's Driver then let off a Standby Tune. But this one was different than Gaim's Japanese one. No, Gridon's Standby Tune had a European flair, using trumpets and having a beat made by what sounded like running hooves. After letting it play for a bit, he then pushed up on the Cutting Blade from below with his right hand, activating it. As the Lockseed sprung open, it showed in the top image a cut-open acorn, while it showed a kind of nutcracker-like hammer in the bottom image.

 **COME ON!**

Another zipper opened in the air, releasing a giant acorn. It plopped down onto Gridon's head, forming a brown bodysuit with silver arm and leg guards. It also had silver chain mail on the chest area and a leathery appearance, not like Gaim's. The acorn then folded down, with a little part in the front and back of the acorn folding over the chest and back while the top of the acorn folded over his shoulders. This revealed his helmet, which looked very medieval in appearance. His visor was just plain yellow. As this happened, his Driver let off the transformation confirmation.

 **DONGURI ARMS: NEVER GIVE UP!**

With that said, Gridon's armor completely folded into position. In a flash of light, the nutcracker-hammer, the Donkachi, appeared in his hand! Kamen Rider Gridon is all his nutty glory had arrived.

"Kamen Rider Gridon," Tsukasa muttered. "So you're one of the two Riders allied with the Desert Apostles, huh? Any particular reason why?" he wondered.

Gridon simply sneered. "I don't need to explain myself to the likes of you! I'll just beat you here so you'll fall in line!" he declared.

"You can try! Henshin!" Tsukasa declared, bringing out his Orange Lockseed and opening it.

 **ORANGE!**

A twirl, an input, and a latch was closed.

 **LOCK ON!**

Down went the Cutting Blade, summoning the orange from Helheim and plopping it onto Tsukasa's head.

 **SOIYA! ORANGE ARMS: HANAMICHI ON STAGE!  
(ORANGE ARMS: FLOWERED PATH ON STAGE!)**

The orange created the Ride Wear, then folded down, summoning the weapons. In a splash, Gaim had arrived!

"Gaim?!" Gridon asked in outrage. "I should have guessed you'd spring up eventually! Man, this'll be a pain!" he cursed.

"Well, nice to know you rate me so highly," Gaim said sarcastically, holding the Daidaimaru ready.

"Oh no, it's not that. It's your damn Main Character Status, that's all. After all, I have a year's worth of experience, whereas you just started yesterday!" Gridon pointed out.

"Well then, I guess I'll just show you how skilled I am!" Gaim shot back, leaping into action.

Drawing both the Musou Saber and Daidaimaru, he swiped at Gridon with both swords. Gridon blocked his blows with the Donkachi and proceeded to slam it directly into Gaim's chest.

"GAH!" Gaim yelled, skidding backwards and tumbling over. "What the-?!" Gaim wondered in pain.

"Don't take me for some fool, Gaim. Unlike Hideyasu Jonouchi, I'm no dandy," Gridon declared, rushing forward again. Gaim attempted to get back to his feet and deflect the blows, but was knocked down again.

"Teh!" he spat as he tumbled again. _'Damn it! I'm getting tossed like a salad here! I need help, fast!'_

* * *

Sora was running.

Not running away, mind you. He didn't know why, but he felt like something was calling to him. So, he ran towards the direction he felt the call was at. When he finally arrived, he was extremely shocked. Because he was at a riverside where Cure Blossom and Cure Marine were battling a Soccer Ball Desertrian whereas Tsukasa, no, Gaim, was battling...

...Gridon?!

 _'I was expecting Bravo or Zangetsu to be helping out the Desert Apostles actually,'_ he admitted to himself. He can't be blamed for having the thought either, as Zangetsu and Bravo were originally introduced as apparent villainous Riders.

He was surprised that there were no Inves here as well, but then again with Gridon here, there wasn't really a need to have Inves on the bad guy's end, was there? He then took out his Banana Lockseed and looked at it. _'I could summon an Inves to help out Gaim, but they would probably only hinder for Gridon for a few minutes judging how easily he's fighting against Gaim,'_ Sora concluded as he tried to think up a way to help out Gaim.

 _'No, Gaim needs... He needs another Rider. He needs...Baron.'_

This conclusion caused Sora to become unexpectedly (to him) annoyed. _'Tch. Why am I feeling this way? This is what I want, right? To live a life full of adventure and romance. A life where you live to the fullest or die trying. A life where you need to fight with your body, mind and soul to survive,'_ he thought in an internal dilemma. _'And... that's why I'm hesitating, isn't it? I don't want to be_ that _kind of fighter. I don't want people to rely on_ me _for protection. Because I don't want people to lose their lives because of my failures.'_

 _'But then, the answer should be obvious, right? Fight, and_ win _. Losing is_ not _an option.'_

 _'But that isn't our choice to make!'_

 _'No! Life is decided by our choices! We lose, we get stronger, and win the rematch! And keep getting stronger until the war is won!'_

 _'...Right. Keep getting stronger. Keep winning, so the next generation will have a beautiful planet to live on. That's what I have to do!'_ he decided, as he began to think back to the quotes he tried to live by. Quotes that inspire him to be the best he can be.

 _"Abandon your fear. Look forward._ Move _forward and never stop. You'll age if you look back, you'll die if you hesitate."_

 _"I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body, and fire is blood. I have created over a thousand blades; unaware of loss, nor aware of pain. Withstood pain, to create many weapons; waiting for one's arrival. I have no regrets. This is the only path. My whole life was... Unlimited Blade Works."_

 _"This isn't about justice. This is about protecting the people!"_

They were but a few of the quotes that constantly inspired him. But they were more than enough.

"Gaim!" Sora called out to him. "Give me _my Sengoku Driver_!" Gaim heard him at that very moment, but his shock gave Gridon an opening. The nut-themed Rider pulled down on his Cutting Blade once.

 **COME ON! DONGURI SQUASH!**

With energy coursing through the Donkachi, Gridon rushed up to Gaim while the latter was distracted and slammed the Donkachi into his chest, sending him flying backwards. That caused Sora to wince a bit, since that was definitely his fault. Nevertheless, Gaim quickly rolled back to his feet and checked himself for the Driver, producing it out of thin air. At that sight, Sora didn't really want to know where he had been hiding it, even though he knew deep down that it was not where his dumbass brain thought it was.

"Sora, catch!" Gaim said, before tossing him the Driver. Sora caught it and instantly placed it over his waist, the strap zooming around it and securing the Driver. A small trumpet noise played as his Driver's blank Rider Indicator had been filled in with Baron's.

"Alright! ...Yeah...here I go!" Sora declared, holding the Banana Lockseed up next to his head. He flicked the switch for it to open.

 **BANANA!**

The sound of a zipper opening was heard above his head. Looking up, he saw the Banana Arms fruit above him in its Fruit Mode. The banana's long side was parallel to the ground. Seeing that, he spun the Lockseed's latch around his finger and smoothly put it into the Drive Bay, closing it shut over the Lock On Arm.

 **LOCK ON!**

The European-themed trumpets kicked in again, this time from Sora's Driver. This, of course, distracted everyone in range. In fact, when Sora listened closely, he could hear Marine gaping loudly at the sight of the Banana. "Ba-Ba-Ba-Na-BANANA?!" Well, wasn't that familiar? Even if it was a bit longer than the original... .

"It's Baron!" Sora corrected, before slicing the Lockseed with the Cutting Blade and declaring, "Henshin!"

 **COME ON! BANANA ARMS: KNIGHT OF SPEAR!**

At this announcement, the Banana Arms plopped down onto his head, creating a Ride Wear rather similar to that of Gridon's, but with red where there was brown on the nut Rider's bodysuit. The two ends of the banana separated from the rest, forming oversized shoulder pads, while what was left folded down over the front and back of his torso. This revealed his helmet, which was red with a steel-colored grille over the visor area, which was yellow like a banana. He also had two yellow horns that curved through his helmet like a banana. As the armor finished folding down, there was a splash as it locked into place. A yellow light appeared in his hand, coalescing into an upside-down banana-themed spear, the Banaspear!

This was Kamen Rider Baron in his signature Arms: Banana Arms!

Gaim sighed in relief at seeing him appear, before getting whacked by Gridon again, sending him flying in the direction of Baron, knocking him over.

"Hey, get off me! I was going to do something cool!" Baron yelled, pushing Gaim off him.

"Oh, like it's my fault!" Gaim yelled back. He shook it off though, as this was not remotely the time for that. "I am _so_ tired of being knocked all over the place!" he declared, unclipping one of his other Lockseeds from his Lockseed Holder. He clicked it open.

 **PINE!**

That declaration indicated to the other two Riders there that he was switching out Lockseeds. Specifically, he was switching for the Pine Lockseed. It was actually a good thing that he had been knocked over to where he was, because now Gaim could switch without worrying. He removed the Orange Lockseed and replaced it with Pine.

 **LOCK OFF!**

 **LOCK ON!**

He took the Cutting Blade, then sliced it down. The Orange Arms armor, along with the Daidaimaru, disappeared. A Crack opened in the air, releasing a giant pineapple. It fell down on Gaim's head, unfolding into armor as an announcement was heard.

 **SOIYA! PINE ARMS: FUNSAI DESTROY!  
(PINEAPPLE ARMS: PULVERIZE AND DESTROY!)**

The sides simply moved down into shoulder guards while the front and back folded normally. His helmet now looked like someone had taken a pineapple, and stuck half of it on the back of his helmet. His visor was yellow and looked like a pineapple slice. In a splash, a pineapple-themed flail, the Pine Iron, appeared in his hand. This was Gaim Pine Arms!

"Wow, that was fast," Baron commented after whistling in appreciation. He hadn't expected him to switch to a different Arms so soon after first transforming.

"I _really_ don't like getting hit by that dumb nutcracker!" Gaim declared.

"Fair enough. Anyway, it looks like the climax scene has arrived!" an amused Baron declared, spinning the Banaspear around in his right hand and holding it upright this time. The short spear in the shape of a peeled banana glowed for a moment before extending, the proof being the black part on the blade that was hidden before. The two then charged towards Gridon, Gaim attaching the end of the Pine Iron's grip to the Musou Saber for added stability.

"Shine, flowers!" Baron heard Marine declare from their own battle as she prepared to finish off the Soccer Desertrian. " **Precure Blue Forte Wave!** " However, he didn't pay much attention at what was happening next over there. How could he when he was too busy making sure his head wasn't slammed clean off his body?! Whoever Gridon was, he was definitely a much more competent fighter than the original, Hideyasu Jonouchi!

Gridon was definitely skilled, as he was able to deflect Baron's stabs with the Banaspear easily using the Donkachi. He had more difficulty dealing with Gaim's flailing of the Pine Iron, but Gaim was also hampered by the fact that he didn't want to accidentally hit Baron with it. Also, that headache was returning, just not as severe. It got to the point where Gridon managed to catch the Pine Iron, and toss it right back at Gaim, stunning him. Baron charged straight at him, but Gridon defended by pulling his Cutting Blade three times.

 **COME ON! DONGURI SPARKING!**

His acorn armor folded back up into an acorn, protecting his head, which he aimed at Baron's attack. This caused Baron to ricochet off of it, and get whacked by the Donkachi, sending him flying.

"Baron!" Gaim yelled, catching his brand-new partner. Baron nodded his thanks, and gripped his spear tightly. Just as they questioned what they should do next, the choice was taken out of their hands.

"Gaim! We'll help too!" Blossom declared as she and Marine ran towards their side. Both Gaim and Baron were relieved at this, although Baron was wondering something. _'Wait, aren't Pretty Cure Kaijins usually transformed humans?'_ Taking the chance, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the girl who had involuntary become a Soccer Desertrian had been turned back to normal. _'Good. Now we can focus on Gridon with no worries.'_

"Hmph. Precure, huh? I'll take you all on!" Gridon declared, holding his Donkachi ready.

"Oh? Well, aren't you getting cocky, Gridon?" Baron declared, pointing his Banaspear at the brown Rider as he slowly approached his comrades. "It's fine by me though, this is a good thing. After all, it only means you're more likely to slip up," Baron taunted in a quite vicious tone. Gaim, Blossom and Marine took note of it, and though quite discomforted by his tone, they forced themselves to shrug it off temporarily after they all looked at each other. A moment passed before the group charged at the acorn Rider, though Baron stopped his charge when he heard a voice.

"Be warned."

Turning his head around, Baron saw... _'the Woman of Beginnings?! What's she doing here and why does she look like-?!'_

"Your choice will now change the course of fate. Know that if you continue down this path, there will be no turning back. You will have to fight until the bitter end. Until the world is dyed into _your_ image," she said in the same strange tone as had been seen in her appearances in the show. Her right eye glimmered red, while her left was brown. She looked eerily like a blond version of Takatsukasa Mai from the actual series. But...that should be impossible, right? This wasn't a World of Kamen Rider, so she couldn't be-!

The two stared at each other, with Baron's perception of time being messed up due to the aura of the Woman of Beginnings. Eventually, he realized that she was looking for a response, and answered;

"...I knew that I couldn't turn back once I put on this belt. Maybe... that's _one_ of the reasons why I hesitated in becoming Baron, despite the fact that it's always been my wish to become something like a Kamen Rider," Baron admitted to her. At the same time, he realized that the others didn't notice that he was most likely talking to thin air. Most likely too busy with Gridon. He wouldn't be surprised if there was a trope to explain his current situation either.

"But I put it on, and I know the consequences. And I will live with them, just like how I live with the consequences of all of my other actions. So like you said, I'll fight... until the bitter end!" he declared to the Woman of Beginnings. "The world being dyed into my image is just a bonus if you ask me. After all, it's a good thing my image for the world isn't _that_ fucked up, eh?" Despite his face being hidden by a helmet, he smiled at her. And she returned it with a sad, longing smile. But Baron didn't have any time to waste, turning his attention back to Gridon.

He let out a roar as he charged into the fray. So it's completely understandable that he missed what she muttered to herself as she faded away. "I'm sorry, Joker. I shouldn't have brought you into this," she whispered.

Baron, not hearing this, went ahead and charged straight at Gridon. With the Ornac being distracted by Blossom and Marine's attacks, as well as the incessant throws of the Pine Iron, by the time he pushed them off of him he was wide open and took the Banaspear head on.

...

Heh.

That must've sounded _real_ misleading, huh?

Go ahead, laugh. Cause right now I'm (well, Joker is anyway) laughing too. So was Baron. Okay, not really. It was more of an amused "Hmph." It was then that he turned to Gaim. "Let's finish together, partner," Baron told him.

Gaim nodded in response. "Got it. Here we go!" he declared as the two pressed down the Cutting Blades of their respective Sengoku Drivers. Blossom and Marine attempted to hold down Gridon so the two Riders could perform their finishers.

 **SOIYA! PINE SQUASH!**

 **COME ON! BANANA SQUASH!**

With those announcements done, it was time to attack. As Baron charged energy into the Banaspear, Gaim attacked first.

 **"Iron Breaker!"** he declared, kicking the Pine Iron at Gridon, just as he managed to push the HeartCatch duo off of him. But it was a good thing for them that he did, as the pineapple-shaped flail expanded in the air, turning into energy. It turned into a giant energy prison that Gridon was trapped in, that was also shaped like a pineapple. Gridon, panicking, frantically pulled down his Cutting Blade three times.

 **COME ON! DONGURI SPARKING!**

Shunting all the power to the Donkachi, he immediately tried to break the prison open. But it was too late.

 **"Spear Victory!"** Baron declared, finally ready. Why did it took him so long?

Because it was his first time and he didn't want to miss. Plus, it was so that he would focus all of his finisher's power at the very tip of the energy banana that emanated from the Banaspear.

...

Again, that sounded a bit misleading, huh?

The end of the energy banana impacted Gridon straight in the chest, interacting with the pineapple prison to cause a large explosion that emanated images of sliced bananas and pineapples. The explosion sent Gridon flying backwards into Sasorina, who was trying to get over the fact that she had lost _again_. Of course, this caused her to fall over, as his armor was heavy. Still, she managed to get back up and haul Gridon up as well.

"Come on! Get up, you dolt!" Sasorina said as she roughly shook Gridon.

"Tch. Damn it," was the only response she got. It was said in a seething tone as well. Gridon apparently didn't take defeat very well.

"Tch!" she replied back. "Damn you, Pretty Cure! Armored Warriors!" Sasorina cursed the four warriors in front of her.

"We're not Armored Warriors," Baron told her. Although, technically speaking, that is what Gaim's name translates to...

"We're Kamen Riders!" Gaim declared to her with a sense of pride.

That got a shock flowing through her system. "What?! Don't bullshit me! Kamen Riders are Warriors of Evil!" she spat.

Gaim and Baron paused at that declaration, with Baron yelling out a loud "What!?" in a personally offended tone. Where the hell had she gotten that idea?

"No. They are Kamen Riders." To their surprise, Gridon was the one who told her that. Sure, he was still pissed, but he was considering what had happened a lucky fluke and had mostly calmed down. "However, that's just a title," he told her as he painfully got back up. "Titles are shared by multiple people. They are Kamen Riders, just like me. They are... Gaim and Baron. You'd best remember that," he told her as he got close to her. "Now, let's go. We need to report this to Bravo."

And with that, the two of them teleported out of there. However, what shocked Baron and Gaim the most was the name 'Bravo'. Kamen Rider Bravo...a durian-themed Kamen Rider introduced early on in Gaim as well as one of the more dangerous Armored Riders in the series in terms of stats. If he's on the Desert Apostles' side... the two shuddered to think.

The two powered down from their Rider forms and looked at each other pensively. They both knew how devastatingly powerful Bravo could be, and if he's on the Desert Apostles' side, along with an incredibly competent Gridon, they're in for the fight of our lives. And then there was still the enroaching question of Helheim. They _needed_ to find Kurokage, and fast.

However, Marine was looking at the pair suspiciously after all that had been said from the others. It didn't help that she remembered Baron's tone of voice when he tried to taunt Gridon. "So you're Kamen Riders and so is that other guy..." she said distrustfully. Tsukasa facepalmed as he realized what had happen. _'Oh no._ Please _tell me she's not going where I think she's going?'_

It was then that Sora interrupted both her and Tsukasa's thoughts. "It's true that he and we are Kamen Riders, but we, like all _true_ Kamen Riders, fight for those who can't protect themselves. Don't lump us in with those fakers!" he yelled.

Tsukasa then decided to break up the argument. Now was absolutely _not_ the time for this. "We'll explain later, Ms. Erika. Now don't you have someone to check on?" he asked, pointing to their classmate Sayaka, the former Soccer Ball Desertrian, who was still lying down where they had left her.

Blossom jerked. "Ah! That's right: come on, Erika!" She and Marine powered down and went over to Sayaka. Tsukasa pretty much ignored their conversation, instead talking with Sora.

"So, it seems you decided to become a Rider after all, huh?" Tsukasa asked, a relieved smile on his face. He wasn't going to be alone in this anymore. There was a chance!

"Yeah. In the end, whatever choice we make, we'll always have some kind of consequences to live with from making our choice. So that's why..." Sora said with his own relaxed smile, to the point of closing his eyes as he seemed to make peace with himself. But then he frowned as he remembered something _extremely_ important. "Oh yeah. By the way, I saw the Woman of Beginnings. And she looked like Takatsukasa Mai, or her actor, Yuumi Shida."

Tsukasa was taken aback at this. _'The Woman of Beginnings? But that...and she appeared the same way Mai did? But that's impossible?! And assuming she's trying to stop the key figures like Mai did...'_

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her at all. Which is strange, considering I've become Gaim twice now and you'd think that I'd be in the thick of things if you are. I wonder why she hasn't shown up?" he wondered pensively, before realizing something very important. "Wait a minute! Why is she even here?! This isn't the World of Gaim, so she shouldn't even be showing up, Helheim or no Helheim!"

Sora blinked at that, the windows of his soul making it clear that he hadn't thought of that himself. "Hm... Wait, could it be? Is it us Gaim Riders' fault? Are we going to have to go through Gaim's plot? As in all of it?" Sora asked to no one in particular, frowning as he did so. Tsukasa himself was starting to get a bit scared. Gaim was an Urobutcher story through and through. So much darkness, with barely any light at the end of the tunnel. To think that such a thing would descend upon the World of Pretty Cure...

Calming himself down, Tsukasa turned to Sora. "Hey, let's not worry about that right now." He then turned to look at the girls, who had just said goodbye to Sayaka. "Right now, we need to focus on keeping them safe."

Sora looked at them as well, and let out a small smile. "...Yeah. Our presence messed up the Story of this World. So, we'll make sure, that Story goes on as it should, no matter what changes occur."

Tsukasa smiled in relief (again). "Well said, partner."

 _A zipper closes diagonally up to the right of the screen. Behind the zipper is Baron's symbol. His Banana and Mango Lockseeds lie scattered over top the emblem._

 _ **Episode 02 - Fin**_

* * *

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: Well, you certainly expanded a lot this time, Joker. This incarnation of Sora is a lot different than the last one.**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : Well, it's nearly been two years now since we first wrote JLM, right? I've matured a bit. I got a better grasp now on how to write down my personality for SIs.**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: Fair enough. I don't think I've changed that much though. ...I take it back. I have changed _a little_. Enough that Episode 3 as it was originally written probably won't...**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : Aw, look at you Oath! Look at how grown-up you've become! You're not getting jealous over trivial things anymore! *Remembers family vacation in Japan, and Oath's reaction* ...Then again...  
**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: Wha-? ...I was _faking_ that! Yeah, I was slightly jealous, but I also have Combiner Wars Leader Class Thundercracker, and you don't, so there!**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : ...One day I'm going to get a DX Drive Driver, a DX Trailer-Hou, a DX Shingou-Ax and a DX Surprise Future Set AT LEAST. So ha! *Blows a raspberry***

 **...  
**

 ***Googles Combiner Wars Leader Class Thundercracker* ...Oh. It's a Transformer.**

 **...  
**

 **Yeah, I had an Optimus Prime toy once. The one from the animated series... Um...the cartoon whose character design was drawn by the same guy who did the Ben 10: Omniverse designs. Pretty good figure. Decided to give it to my younger cousins because they love Transformers so much.**

 _ **OathToOblivion**_ **: Yeah, that show was _literally_ called  Transformers Animated. Anyway, at the time of writing this, it's getting real late for you, so let's wrap this up, shall we?**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : YES! THANK YOU! GOODNIGHT, SWEET PRINCE!**

 **...  
**

 **Bweh, I'm tired. Goodnight, people.**

 ** _ **OathToOblivion :**_ ******On that note...****

 **Next time on HeartCatch Pretty Cure - Just Live More Redux: Kunais and Irons! Pears and Papayas! Unorthodox Arms Changes Galore! **

**And we will see _you guys_ in the next episode! Seeya!  
**


	3. Episode 03 - Unorthodox Arms Galore!

_**OathToOblivion**_ **:** **Um...hey, guys! It's, um, been a while, huh?**

 **...PLEASE DON'T KILL US!**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : ... I bet they hate us. I bet they hate us so much right now.**

 ** _OathToOblivion_ : -sigh- We're sorry, guys. Things just get away from you sometimes. Between life, and certain things we were doing on Spacebattles, JLM just...slipped away from us. But not anymore! I'm sick and tired of having to rewrite this thing again and again! Let's get going, Joker!**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : Alright, let's go! This is our stage now!**

* * *

 _ **Let's Ride! This is Our Stage Now!**_

* * *

 _ **HeartCatch Pretty Cure - Just Live More REDUX**_

 _ **Episode 03 - Kunai and Irons! Melons and Acorns! Unorthodox Arms Changes Galore!**_

"Gah!" Gaim yelled as he was tossed backwards into the ground by the Evolved Shika Inves that he and Baron were fighting.

"Hot hot hot!" Baron yelped, leaping away from the fire that the giant Inves tossed at him.

 _'Okay, last couple of days have been kinda hectic!'_ Gaim thought to himself. _'First there's this thing today, and then there's what we found out yesterday...'_

* * *

 _Flashback_

 _"I'm late I'm late I'm LATE!" he yelled as he frantically ran towards the battle currently taking place today. From what he remembered, it was the beginning of HeartCatch Episode 3, which showed the tail end of a battle that had been mostly offscreen. But why was he late? Because of Sora._

"If we're going to be Riders, then we need to train! That's what Hibiki does, and he turned out great!"

'Training is fine and all, but I kept telling you what time it was, didn't I?' _Tsukasa frantically thought to himself. He pushed his glasses back up his nose as they were about to fall off. He was just about to reach the battle, when he stopped because of somebody standing in his way._

 _Standing in front of him was someone around Tsukasa's age, or at least he thought that was the case. He had brown hair and green eyes, but aside from that he was fairly nondescript, with the only notable feature being the hat he wore, which strangely made him look a bit like Chuck Norris. But seeing as though he clearly wasn't, Tsukasa chucked that thought straight out the back window._

 _"Hey, it's not safe! You got to get out of here!" Tsukasa called out to the figure, trying to get him to leave. However, the other just silently looked at him for a bit._

 _"So, you're the new guy?" the figure asked quietly._

 _"'New guy'?" Tsukasa questioned. '_ The only thing I'm new to is-!' _It was then that he realized that the person in front of him had to be a Rider._

 _"Who are you?!" he demanded, worrying that it might be Bravo come to head him off._

 _The other simply sighed, silently bringing out a Sengoku Driver. He placed it on his waist, yet another silver belt strap zooming around him. It was then that Tsukasa noticed his Rider Indicator. It was not the green and edgy design of Bravo, but a more simplistic design that looked like the helmet of a footsoldier. Tsukasa immediately recognized it, and was relieved at who he had found._

 _"Kurokage!" he beamed. "Man, am I glad to finally meet you! I've got a ton of questions-" He was cut off by what Kurokage said next._

 _"Sorry man, but this is as far as you go," the now-identified Kurokage apologized, bringing out his Matsubokkuri Lockseed, L.S. - 01. He popped it open._

 _ **MATSUBOKKURI!**_

 _He held it out to the side, before putting it into his Driver's Drive Bay, slamming the latch shut over the Lock On Arm._

 _ **LOCK ON!**_

 _As the same horogai music as Gaim's Standby Tune started playing from Kurokage's Driver, Tsukasa was taken aback. "Huh? But why?" he wondered._

 _"Because I have no choice. Henshin," the other said. He sliced down with his Cutting Blade. The top image of the cut-open Lockseed showed a cut-open pine cone, while the bottom image showed a spear with a pine cone motif. As per usual, the bottom image showed a rainbow hologram of itself._

 _A Crack opened in the air, releasing a pine cone. It dropped down on his head, creating a black and plain Ride Wear. It unfolded, revealing the same footsoldier-like helmet on his Rider Indicator, but with a back helmet that looked like a piece of pine cone. His armor was plain and simple, unfolding similarly to Gridon's. His visor was yellow. He had a simple spear themed after a pine cone, called the Kagematsu. This was Kamen Rider Kurokage! As it all happened, his Driver let off the confirmation._

 _ **SOIYA! MATSUBOKKURI ARMS: ICHIGEKI IN THE SHADOW!  
(PINE CONE ARMS: STRIKE IN THE SHADOW!)  
**_

 _"But, I don't understand!" Tsukasa cried._

 _"And you probably don't want to. I'm going to give you one chance to walk away," Kurokage stoically said._

 _At this, Tsukasa grew angry. "Like hell! I promised that I'd defend this World, and if I have to defeat you in the process, then so be it!" he declared, bringing out his Driver._

 _"I hoped you wouldn't say that. Now we have to fight. No hard feelings, really," Kurokage said sincerely. Course, Tsukasa was a bit irked._

 _"Oh, sure. I'll be sure to remember that!" Tsukasa said sarcastically. "Hen-shin!" he yelled in a similar way to Terui Ryu, Kamen Rider Accel. Tsukasa clicked open his Orange Lockseed._

 _ **ORANGE!**_

 _Twirling it around similar to the original Gaim, Kazuraba Kouta, he slammed it into his Driver's Drive Bay and closed it shut over the Lock On Arm. He did that and slice down the Cutting Blade in one fluid motion._

 _ **LOCK ON!**_

 _ **SOIYA! ORANGE ARMS: HANAMICHI ON STAGE!  
(ORANGE ARMS: FLOWERED PATH ON STAGE!)  
**_

 _"Orange Arms? Huh, wasn't expecting you, Gaim. Then again, better you than Zangetsu and his shadiness," Kurokage noted as Gaim's armor came together._

 _"Kurokage, why are you trying to stop me anyway? You worked with Cure Moonlight, you understand the stakes involved better than anyone!" Gaim argued, even as the Daidaimaru appeared in his hand. Inwardly, he noted Kurokage's mention of Zangetsu's shadiness. What did he mean by that?  
_

 _"I won't go into what happened. All you need to know is that I now work for the Desert Apostles," Kurokage said bitterly._

 _Gaim was outraged. "You sold Moonlight out?!" he yelled in anger. He was taken aback when Kurokage got angry at this, pointing his Kagematsu spear at him._

 _"Don't you ever say that ever again," Kurokage raged. "Spear heaven and hell! Kamen Rider Kurokage!" he yelled, rushing at Gaim._

 _"Come here then! This is my stage now!" Gaim declared, drawing the Musou Saber and running forward. They clashed, spear to swords. Gaim lashed out multiple times with both the Daidaimaru and Musou Saber, but Kurokage blocked expertly with the Kagematsu. Also, Gaim's swords kept bumping into each other, which let Kurokage strike him. Their fight progressively moved closer and closer to a skyscraper, and Gaim was getting more and more frustrated._

 _"That's it! Take this!" he yelled, pushing down his Cutting Blade._

 _ **SOIYA! ORANGE SQUASH!**_

 _ **"Daidai Ittou!"** he declared, lancing out with the Daidaimaru. But as he swung, his sword hit the side of the nearby skyscraper, causing it to go wild and miss. Kurokage used this to his advantage, attacking with a kick that knocked the wind out of Gaim. Then, he pushed down on his own Cutting Blade._

 _ **SOIYA! MATSUBOKKURI SQUASH!**_

 _ **"Kage Nui Tsuki!"** Kurokage yelled, attacking with a slash from the Kagematsu. It exploded on Gaim's armor, sending him tumbling backwards._

 _"I'm done here," Kurokage muttered, before leaping into a Crack that appeared._

* * *

 _"What do you mean that Kurokage guy was a bad guy?!" Erika demanded, the four of them meeting up at the Botanical Gardens.  
_

 _"I meant what I said! When I met him, he attacked me!" Tsukasa said, his hands up in the air as a defense of sorts._

 _"Hmph. Now I'm not sure what to think about you two..." she muttered suspiciously._

 _End Flashback_

* * *

 _'I can't believe Kurokage is working for the Desert Apostles! But then...he seemed a bit reluctant to actually fight me. And he got super pissed when I implied that he had betrayed Cure Moonlight. Maybe he's being coerced?'_ Gaim wondered. This was before Baron was knocked straight into him, sending both Riders tumbling backwards.

"What are you doing?! I could use some help here!" Baron said angrily.

"Sorry! The thing with Kurokage is still distracting me!" Gaim apologized.

"Oh, right. That," Baron remembered. He wasn't really sure what to think of Kurokage suddenly turning out to be opposed to them. And quite frankly, for the most part he didn't particularly care either. He had spent enough time on the Internet to know that a good guy can suddenly become a bad guy for a multitude of reasons. But even he knew that right now wasn't really the time to think about it. Especially because the Shika Inves was launching a barrage of fireballs at them!

"Move!" Baron yelled, pushing Gaim and himself out of the way of the fireballs. As Baron rolled back to his feet, he said, "Worry about it later! We've got bigger deer to fry!"

Gaim shook his head. He still wasn't used to his. "Right! If I recall Gaim correctly, Kouta first defeated one of these with Pine Arms!" he remembered.

"Well, then, go for it!" Baron said, getting in front of Gaim so he could defend his partner while he was switching Lockseeds.

Gaim took out the Pine Lockseed, stared at it for a bit, then shrugged and gave it to Baron. "Here you go!"

"Wha-? Me?! What do you want me to do with it?!" Baron protested, unprepared for the out-of-the-blue moment.

"Arms Change?" Gaim said rhetorically, thinking the question was a tad stupid.

"Yeah, but why me? It's your Lockseed!" Baron pointed out, getting completely distracted as most of his attention was focused on Gaim.

"Well, I-Look out!" Gaim cut himself off, pushing Baron out of the way of the Shika Inves's punch. Of course, this meant he took the punch and ended up rocketing into a tree.

"Gaim!" Baron yelled in panic, before anger started setting in. He whirled around to face the Evolved Shika Inves, angrily clicking open the Pine Lockseed. "You're going to pay for that, you little-" Whatever Baron was going to say next was cut off when the Pine Lockseed made its announcement.

 **PINE!**

 **LOCK ON!**

 **COME ON! PINE ARMS: FUNSAI DESTROY!  
(PINEAPPLE ARMS: PULVERIZE AND DESTROY!)**

You all know the drill. Crack opened, Pine fruit comes out, lands on Baron's head, then unfolded, summoning the Pine Iron. Here was Baron Pine Arms, a combination that really seemed to mesh. "Eat this, you piece of shit!" Baron roared, tossing the Pine Iron straight at the thing. It blocked, but Baron whipped the cord, sending the Iron crashing into the Inves's antlers and destroying them. The giant Inves roared in pain, swiping a fist at Baron.

Meanwhile, Gaim was still in the tree, dazed. "Ugh..." he moaned, picking himself out of the tree. Pain was the word of the day for him. Luckily for him, his armor took a bit of the blow.

"Stupid Inves..." he seethed, bringing out another of his Lockseeds.

 **ICHIGO!**

 **LOCK ON!**

 **SOIYA! ICHIGO ARMS: SHUSHUTO SPARK!  
(STRAWBERRY ARMS: SWIFT SPARK!)**

Out of a Crack, a strawberry emerged from Helheim. It fell straight down onto his head, the bottom opening to form the right shoulder pad and let his head in. The rest of the strawberry folded so that the top was the left shoulder pad, and the middle folded to the front and back. As it snapped together, a pair of Kunai appeared in Gaim's hands. This was Gaim Ichigo Arms! "Here goes something!" he declared, rushing forward with better speed than he had before.

Meanwhile, Baron was having the problem in that Pine Arms had lowered his speed. Sure, Banana Arms wasn't the most agile form in existence itself, but he was finding it hard to dodge the Inves's attacks. Fortunately, the damn thing had its antlers destroyed, so it couldn't shoot fire at him anymore, plus Pine Arms had higher defenses compared to most Arms Changes.

Suddenly, a kunai came hurtling in and plunged into its face, distracting it and making it let out a roar of pain. Turning, Baron saw Gaim run up to him. "You're okay?"

"Course I am! It was just a scratch," Gaim waved off his concern, hiding the slight aching he felt. "Anyway, let's finish this guy off!" he declared.

"Right!" Baron nodded, pushing his Cutting Blade down once.

 **COME ON! PINE SQUASH!**

At the same time, Gaim unlocked his Ichigo Lockseed from his Driver. "Time for a Fruits Charge!" he announced, locking it into the Musou Saber and causing the barrel to light up.

 **LOCK OFF!**

 **LOCK ON!**

 **Ichi! Juu! Hyaku! ICHIGO CHARGE!  
(1! 10! 100! STRAWBERRY CHARGE!)**

With that announcement, the two were ready. First, Baron punted the Pine Iron at the Inves. The Iron grew in size, engulfing the Evolved Shika Inves's head and causing it to flail around in panic. Then Gaim flung up one of his Ichigo Kunai into the air with his Musou Saber. The Kunai replicated itself by the hundreds and flew at the Inves. The strawberry and pineapple powers interacted, causing an explosion that took the Inves with it!

"...I wanted to Rider Kick it," Baron pouted.

"Hey, at least we beat it!" Gaim pointed out.

"True," Baron shrugged. Then he paused. "Still, can't help but feel something else should have happened though."

"Like what?" Gaim wondered, folding up the Ichigo Lockseed and reverting the transformation.

"I dunno, it feels like... you should have been jealous of me for some petty and arbitrary reason," Baron shrugged again, doing the same. Sora then gave Tsukasa back his Pine Lockseed.

"...No offense, man, but that sounds stupid! Why would I be jealous of you? We're in this whole mess together, after all," Tsukasa pointed out.

"It's just a feeling, no need to bite my head off," Sora said as he shrugged dramatically this time, similar to those Pony Shrugs memes on the Internet of their old world.

"I wasn't-! ...Never mind."

* * *

"Not that I'm complaining, but why so many apples?"

"I like apples. They're my favorite fruit."

"I would have thought oranges, all things considered."

"I like oranges too. My favorite fruits are apples, oranges, grapes, and bananas."

"...You're not going to eat me, are you?"

"Even if I was a carnivore, do I look like a cannibal to you, Sora?"

"..."

"Seriously!?"

The next day, our intrepid Rider duo were on their way back to their place of work/residence with groceries. In particular, a whole lot of fruits. Irony tastes so delicious, doesn't it?

At any rate, they were walking through the park on their way back from the store. Tsukasa couldn't help but look around in a fidgety manner.

"What's with you?" Sora asked with confusion plastered all over his face.

"I'm getting an unsettling feeling," Tsukasa couldn't help but mutter. "This is that moment where the heroes are minding their own business when out of the blue-BAM! Bad guys," he continued.

"I thought you said the next Episode hadn't happened yet?" Sora questioned with his eyebrow raised. He didn't really remember how HeartCatch went to a tee unlike Tsukasa, as he never even managed to reach Heartcatch's mid-season episode.

Then again, Tsukasa only really remembered how the first few episodes went. Anything else was cliffnotes, as it had been a while since he had seen the show.

"Well, yeah, but this is real life, not Anime," Tsukasa pointed out. As if on cue, a Crack appeared in front of them, letting loose Kurokage and a few Elementary Inves.

"Kurokage!" Sora yelled.

"Sorry about this, but I've been ordered to take you out," Kurokage apologized glumly.

"...Right, because three Inves are definitely going to be enough," Sora commented sarcastically.

Kurokage shrugged. "Bravo's not really taking you two seriously. Come to think of it, he's never taken anything seriously. Not once, in all the times I've fought him," he mused.

"He _is_ the strongest of the Armored Riders stat-wise," Tsukasa pondered.

"Oh, is he? I honestly thought Zangetsu would have been stronger, since he's clearly final boss material or something," Kurokage said bemusedly.

"Maybe he doesn't feel like he needs to due to sheer power? I don't know, something still seems off," Tsukasa muttered. Then he remembered. "Oh, Kurokage, I'm, uh, sorry about what I said yesterday," he awkwardly apologized.

Kurokage sighed as he remembered those harsh words. He couldn't blame Tsukasa for thinking the worst. He knew he would if he was in his shoes. "It's fine. It didn't really paint a good picture at the time," he shrugged.

"Um... are we going to get this over with or not?" Sora cut in, looking back-and-forth between Tsukasa and Kurokage.

Tsukasa shook his head, putting his groceries down off to the side. "Right. Sorry about this, Kurokage," he apologized.

"It's alright, not your fault," Kurokage said, letting them get ready.

 **ORANGE!**

 **BANANA!**

"Henshin!"

 **LOCK ON!**

 **SOIYA! ORANGE ARMS: HANAMICHI ON STAGE!**

 **COME ON! BANANA ARMS: KNIGHT OF SPEAR!**

Going through the motions, Tsukasa and Sora strapped on their Drivers. They opened their Lockseeds, slapped them into their Drive Bays, closed the latches shut over their Lock On Arms, then pulled the Cutting Blades down. Then, the two fruits appeared from their respective Cracks, landing on their heads and creating their armor. Gaim and Baron had arrived!

"So, how's this going to play out today?" Gaim asked, swinging the Daidaimaru around in his hand to loosen his wrist up.

"I figured I'd just send these Inves at you," Kurokage shrugged, sending the three Elementary Inves forward.

"Heh. This'll be a piece of cake!" Baron declared, rushing forward along with Gaim.

Gaim went after two at once, swiping at them with both Musou Saber and Daidaimaru. While he knew that was probably a bad idea considering what happened the last time, he also knew that he needed to get better with using both at once. He slashed at the two Inves, cutting into them fiercely. It seemed Baron was right, this was a piece of cake. Kurokage was really reluctant to fight them. At any rate, it was time for the finish.

 **SOIYA! ORANGE SQUASH!**

"Eat this! **Burai Kick (Rebel Kick)**!" Gaim declared, leaping up for his Rider Kick. He descended on the two Inves with an orange aura surrounding his foot, crushing them underfoot. As he did so, he couldn't help but grin. "My first Rider Kick...so cool!" he said to himself.

Meanwhile, with Baron, he was having a very easy time. Baron in Banana Arms may not be quite as agile as Gaim in Orange Arms, but he was still faster than a lumbering Elementary Inves. He toyed with it, circling around it and slashing at it with the Banaspear.

"Okay, bored now," Baron deadpanned, pushing his Cutting Blade down.

 **COME ON! BANANA SQUASH!**

 **"Spear Victory!"** Baron declared, shooting a lance of energy from the Banaspear as he thrust it forward. The Inves disappeared in an explosion. Seeing as how both of them were done, Gaim and Baron regrouped back together.

"Good show!" Kurokage complimented. "Unfortunately, I've been asked to do something else," he commented, bringing out a Melon Lockseed, L.S. - 04.

"Oh boy, that's going to be trouble," Gaim gulped. After all, Melon Arms was the signature form of Kamen Rider Zangetsu, who could easily kick their asses.

"But doesn't that only give a shield? Kurokage's not like you or Zangetsu who have a side weapon in all of your forms," Baron pointed out.

"Oh, I'm not using it myself," Kurokage corrected, clicking it open. A Crack opened behind him, and out popped out a Byakko Inves. Kurokage then closed the Lockseed to close the Crack the Inves popped out of.

At this, Baron frowned underneath his helmet. _'...Yeah, like hell I'm going to let that happen again!'_ he swore to himself.

"Hey, think fast!" he yelled, distracting Kurokage from throwing the Lockseed at the Inves. While the pine cone Rider was distracted by his yell, Baron took the Banaspear and tossed it at Kurokage. The banana spear hit Kurokage straight in the arm, causing him to wince in pain and unconsciously pull his arm closer to him. This also meant that the Melon Lockseed in his hand went flying into the air. Right into Baron's waiting grasp.

The sheer improbability of aiming that like that caused everyone there to pause and gape, meaning Gaim, Kurokage, and even the Byakko Inves. How the hell had Baron done that?

Speaking of the Banana Knight, Baron stared at the Melon Lockseed in his hand like he couldn't believe it himself. And then, when his motor functions began spinning again...

"...Mwuahahaha! I'm awesome!" he cheered like a child, to the point of raising his arms into the air in celebration. "Ha-! Hey, Gaim! Mind taking care of that Inves?" Baron requested after his moment of celebration was over.

"Uh... yeah..." At this request, Gaim shook himself out of it. With a nod, he pressed down his Cutting Blade twice.

 **SOIYA! ORANGE AU LAIT!**

With orange energy enveloping his Musou Saber and Daidaimaru, he tore into the unaware Byakko Inves, felling it in 5 seconds.

Kurokage could only blink in surprise. "Okay, didn't see that coming," he commented. "Well, you beat my minions, so I'm out of here. Peace," he shrugged, stepping back into the Crack he had arrived in. The zipper closed up behind him.

Baron said nothing at Kurokage's depature, opting to look back at the Melon Lockseed in his hand; his mind already contemplating how they could use it and its Arms Weapon to its fullest potential. As for Gaim, he was really impressed that Baron managed to pull that off. After all, each Lockseed the pair got increased the number of options they both had. Still, they'd be able to get more if they just had a way into Helheim Forest.

Regardless of that, Gaim clapped Baron on the shoulder. "Good work, Baron! That's one Lockseed they aren't going to be using anymore!"

Baron shrugged, though he was grinning. "It's nothing special. I'd just been thinking about it for a while now."

 _'...Couldn't have let me in on it, eh?'_ Gaim sardonically thought. He shook it off though. From what he could tell, Baron was used to being more of a loner. Baron didn't seem to be used to thinking in terms of a team, so he didn't really share his ideas. His snark, yes. His ideas, not so much.

Baron then tossed Gaim the Melon Lockseed, the Orange Samurai Rider stumbling to try to successfully catch it without letting it drop to the ground first. "Hey, you keep an eye on it. You have the Musou Saber, whereas I would have to fight like Captain America. And I'm not comfortable with doing that," Baron admitted, after Gaim managed to catch the Lockseed.

Gaim shrugged at this, since it made a little sense. Fighting with just a shield isn't something just anyone can do. "Got it. Now come on, we have to go meet with the girls," he said. At this, Baron twitched fiercely.

"Do we have to?" he groaned. Tsukasa powered down and cocked an eyebrow at this. Sora did the same and looked away, mumbling something about Erika being annoying.

 _'Not surprising. She's been on our case and distrustful ever since Gridon mentioned that he was a Kamen Rider. The fact that Kurokage helped Yuri, but is now working for the Desert Apostles probably also soured things.'_ Still, Tsukasa had to give her the benefit of the doubt. Erika was undoubtedly a good person, and being suspicious was only natural. After all, if roles were reversed, he'd probably be a bit suspicious too.

"Yes, we have to. They _are_ our friends, after all. Now, let's go!" Tsukasa motioned, picking up his groceries. Sora _still_ had an irritated look on his face, but complied. And with that, the two left for the Botanical Garden.

* * *

 _A little while later...  
_

"So, um, what's this about, Tsukasa?" Tsubomi asked. The whole group was sitting in the Botanical Gardens for a meeting. Both Riders, both Cures, their Fairies, Hanasaki Kaoruko and Coupe.

Tsukasa started the meeting out by bringing out the Melon Lockseed he and Baron had obtained from Kurokage. "Well for starters, there's this," he pointed out.

"Eh?! Isn't that one of your Lockseeds?!" Tsubomi reacted with shock.

Meanwhile, Erika was suspicious. "Hey, how come we haven't seen that one before? I thought we knew about every single one you had." Tsukasa sighed. Erika was continuing to be suspicious. He knew that it made sense that she was being super suspicious because she didn't want anything to happen to Tsubomi, but it was still irritating. Still, he knew it was to live up to her legacy of being a Pretty Cure.

And speaking of previous Pretty Cures, it seemed the the version of the World of Pretty Cure Tsukasa and Sora were in was the one of the All-Stars Timeline, which meant that All-Stars DX2 would be fast approaching. On that note, they were a bit nervous. The previous Cures had likely never even heard of Kamen Riders before...

* * *

Suddenly, certain people across the country, most of them male, who owned strange belts suddenly sneezed in synchronization. But what was really strange was that one of them wasn't even in this time period, and another was accessing the Memories of the Earth itself and wasn't even in his body.

"How peculiar," that one wondered. "I feel as though there's new data." It was then that he turned his attention to a certain bookshelf in the library that was Earth's Memories. Said bookshelf happened to be on the floor, its books scattered everywhere. "I get the distinct feeling it has to do with that," he commented wearily. Why did he have to knock that shelf over like a clumsy person?

* * *

...so the duo couldn't help but wonder how they'd react to them. Still, Tsukasa had to respond to the question.

"The reason you haven't seen this before, Erika, is because Sora here managed to steal it from Kurokage before he fed it to an Inves," he said. Before she could open her mouth to say something, Tsukasa slid into his next topic. "Which brings me to my next point. Obviously, they have an open Crack to Helheim Forest if they're getting all these Lockseeds. We need to find it, and do some investigating."

Erika got an irritated look on her face from when he cut her off, but Tsubomi interrupted her again. "Helheim Forest? What's that?" she wondered.

It was then that Sora spoke up, and if the wide almost Troll-like smile on his face was any indication, he had noticed Erika was getting interrupted over and over again and was enjoying it. "Helheim Forest is the source of the Lockseeds, as well as the Inves. Do you remember the zippers that open whenever we summon our armor, or they summon Inves? Those are Cracks, but they're only temporary ones. We need to find a somewhat permanent one that will stay open for more than 5 seconds if we're going to get in and get out of Helheim Forest ourselves," he said, leaning back in his chair.

At this point, Erika was almost literally steaming. That's kind of ironic considering she's Cure Marine. She was about to say something when Hanasaki Kaoruko interrupted her yet again. "Why would you need to go there? It sounds like a dangerous place, especially if the Apostles' Riders are there as well as Inves," she pointed out.

Tsukasa took over the discussion again. "Sora snagging the Melon Lockseed was a lucky move, but we can't rely on luck all the time. It's entirely possible that after this, the enemy Riders will have wised up and stop just throwing the Lockseeds at the Inves. If we want more Lockseeds, we need to go to Helheim," he said decisively.

Erika opened her mouth, and Coffret talked right over her. "Why would you need more Lockseeds? Aren't the ones you already have enough?" he wondered. While Tsukasa pondered how to answer that, Erika started turning red. That's probably not good for her blood pressure.

Tsukasa then decided on how to answer that. "What we have are the default Lockseeds our armors work the best with. If we're going to combat our enemies more effectively, we'll need more Lockseeds." He then held up their brand new Melon Lockseed. "To put it in perspective, this Lockseed is the one used by Kamen Rider Zangetsu, who can easily curb-stomp me in my default Orange Arms state. And Kamen Rider Bravo, the leader of the Apostles' Riders is _stronger_ than Zangetsu...stat-wise anyway."

Everyone took some time to digest that in. Erika didn't say anything, thinking that she'd be talked over again. When she wasn't, she smiled, and was about to open her mouth, only for Chypre to talk over her. "Like what?"

Sora decided to give the list. "Well, there's Budou (Grape), which gives us a gun, as well as Kiwi, which gives us...I think they're chakrams? At any rate, maybe we'll get lucky and find a copy of Bravo's own Durian Lockseed there."

Tsukasa chimed in as well. "Not to mention extras of our own Lockseeds. Just in case something goes wrong with ours, or if we need to switch Arms. While I have no problems lending Sora my Lockseeds, it would be helpful if we didn't have to swap all the time when changing to each others' forms," he said. While some may argue that having so many on hand would make it hard to decide, having that many options in the first place would be a major plus. Also, what if they both needed to use, say, Pine at the same time? It would be more efficient to have more.

However, at last, the pressure cooker that was Kurumi Erika finally burst! "Geez! You Kamen Rider guys think we're so stupid, huh?! Well, I know what you're really up to! I bet that this is just a trap so you can stab us in the back!" she yelled.

At this, Sora was fed up with the younger girl's attitude. They're risking their lives only to be suspected of being douches by one of the people they protect? Suddenly, his admiration for Spider-Man was skyrocketing.

Meanwhile, Tsukasa eyed his partner with unease. This probably wasn't going to end well, judging by how Sora's eye was twitching plus his low growling.

"Annoying little _brat_ ," Sora growled out. He looked like he was going to have an aneurysm, but managed to calm down. "I'm going to take a walk, maybe even look for a Crack. See you guys later." And with that, he walked out of the doors.

"Sora!" Tsukasa called after him, getting out of his seat to try to stop him.

 _'Chase me, and I'm punching you in the face, Tsukasa!'_ Sora turned his head around and saw Tsukasa running towards him. However, a glare quickly made Tsukasa stop before he let Sora continue on his way out.

 _'I don't know where I'm going, nor do I care. I'm too annoyed with what Erika said. Does she honestly think we're some traitorous little shits that only care about themselves?! There's enough of those types in the world. I don't want to help add to that number!'_ Sora ranted to himself as walked away. Suddenly, he wished that he had kept his smartphone and earphones on hand. He _hated_ walking anywhere without his music. He despised not hearing the songs that help him enjoy life a bit more than he would've otherwise.

' _Yume wo miteita kono te de tsukurikaeru sekai..._ '

* * *

Tsukasa shot Erika a disapproving look. "Was that really necessary, Erika?" he asked with an arched brow.

Erika just mumbled something and fell silent. Tsukasa sighed. He suddenly felt very exhausted.

"Um..."

At that sound from Tsubomi, Tsukasa turned to her. "Yeah, Tsubomi? What is it?" he wondered.

"Well, we don't honestly know a lot about you guys. Maybe if you were a bit more open, Erika wouldn't be so suspicious?" she asked.

Tsukasa considered this. It was true that they hadn't really shared a lot about themselves. Well, why not?

"I guess I can talk about how our stuff actually works," he admitted, setting his Sengoku Driver and Lockseeds on the table. He didn't want to bring up anything personal until Sora came back. He most _definitely_ was not going to bring up their TV Show without Sora's opinion on that.

Tsubomi looked on in interest, while Erika pretended not to be interested.

"For starters, this is called a Sengoku Driver. Sengoku in this case does not refer to the period of time, but rather means "Warring Extreme" after their creator's surname. The first person who puts one on gets the Driver locked to them and them only. No one else can use it," Tsukasa started.

"So people can't steal it, then?" Erika snidely said.

"No," Tsukasa said in a deadpan tone. "Anyway, when you put it on, it automatically creates the yellow belt strap around its user's waist. Kurokage and Gridon have silver belt straps though. I guess that means they're using tweaked mass-production models, but then why don't Sora and I have those?" he pondered. He shook it off though, as it didn't really matter right now.

"When you're wearing a Driver, you can pick Lockseed Fruit, which look like padlocks, and they mature into these," he continued, waving his Orange Lockseed around.

"To use it, just hit the latch on the side, then put it in this slot, shut it closed over this little arm, then slice it open with the knife." As he said that, he went through all the motions, without actually transforming.

"And then that summons the armor from, Helheim, was it?" Hanasaki Kaoruko asked.

"Yeah. Once transformed, you have access to three tiers of attacks, each more powerful than the next. They're activated with the appropriate number of slices with the Cutting Blade. Once is Squash, twice is Au Lait, and three is Sparking. In the case of me and Kamen Rider Zangetsu, we can also use Charge attacks by placing our Lockseeds into our Musou Sabers, that black katana I use," he mentioned.

"Why just you two?" Tsubomi wondered.

Tsukasa shrugged. "No idea. We're the only two (noteworthy ones) with Musou Sabers, so we're the only ones who can use Charge attacks. I'm not really sure why only the two of us have them, honestly. They're pretty useful," he admitted.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sora was skulking through town, pondering the whole situation again. ' _I still can't believe it,_ ' he thought to himself. ' _I'm living the dream. I'm now living in a world that's just an anime in mine._ _Heh, not my first choice but better than certain shows. Like... Highschool of Dead._ ' Just thinking about living in that kind of world sent shivers down to his spine. And not the good kind.

' _And like in my fanfictions, I become a Kamen Rider!_ ' Sora cheered to himself, after getting through the horrors of imagining in living in a zombie apocalypse. ' _Again, not my first choice, but Baron is one of my favorite Secondary Riders of all time so I'm totally okay with it. Better Baron than a Riotrooper. Ugh. Thank God I'm not one of_ those _cannon fodder._ '

 _'But then, there's the down sides. People are depending on me to protect them. These people are real, not 2D characters on a TV screen. If they ever die on my watch, I can't just ignore it since they're no longer background characters of a TV Show. They have friends and family that'll worry for their safety.'_

He then began to stare at the sky. This caused him to sigh. _'Ah, I don't know why, but I always stare at the sky whenever I feel down. Whenever I feel... empty. Heh. How ironic. In Japanese, Sora (Sky) and Kara (Empty) are written in the same Kanji. Thank you, Kingdom Hearts, for giving us a lesson that may never be useful but is fun to know.'_ He let out another sigh at his train of thought. _'What am I doing with my life? Besides endangering myself and others by fighting Kaijin.'_

It was then that he noticed a large group of people standing around a building. Wondering what was going on, he decided to see for himself. Making his way through the crowd, he got his answer when he got to the center. How convenient: a large Crack to Helheim Forest. And it looked like it was going to stay open for the whole day. _'Better tell the others, no matter_ how _annoyed I am with a certain blue haired Genki Girl.'_ It was then that he realized that he had to walk all the way back to the Botanical Gardens. And there was no guarantee that they were all still there.

 _'Fucking hell. It's times like these that I wish we had the Lockvehicles. Why the hell didn't we come with them anyway?!'_

Although, as he left, he didn't register the fact that none of the bystanders felt compelled to go in...

* * *

A while later, Gaim, Baron, Blossom, and Marine were checking out the giant zipper. Of course, they couldn't really get to it because of the large crowd that was completely blocking it. That meant that they had to clear the crowd out. Luckily, Baron had an idea. _  
_

"You two do it."

"Oi! Why do we-?!" Marine protested.

"Think of it in this way: who would _you_ rather listen to? Two guys in fruit themed armor and deadly weapons, or two cute girls in cute dresses who look completely harmless most of the time?"

 _'Why must this girl insist on being a thorn in my side? I'm starting to not care that she's being reasonably suspicious. You can only push a guy so far before he snaps!'_ Baron thought to himself.

Huffing, Marine dragged Blossom so they could disperse the crowd, while Gaim and Baron just stared at the portal to Helhiem. "I guess it's pretty convenient that you found one so soon, huh?" Gaim attempted to start a conversation, but Baron wasn't really in the mood right then.

"I ain't in the mood, Gaim. Can it," Baron told him bluntly. Gaim, wisely, kept his mouth shut until the girls came back. "Let's just go." With that, they began their trek into Helheim Forest.

"I think he's still angry at you," Baron heard Blossom whisper to Marine out of the corner of his ear. Whether or not she replied was beyond him though. As they walked, he could hear Blossom and Marine, mostly Blossom, looking at the forest in awe. Well, she was born to a family whose entire world revolves around flowers and plants in general. It was understandable that she would act like this.

"Baron, look!" Gaim said, pointing towards a few trees. And sitting right there on them were Lockseeds ripe for the picking. Well, technically speaking, they weren't ripe _yet_. Gaim and Baron walked to the nearest tree, which only had three Lockseed Fruits.

"Wow, they're so pretty!" Blossom complimented the Lockseed Fruits.

"Not for long, unfortunately," Baron told her as he plucked two Lockseed Fruits while Gaim plucked the last one. Thanks to their Sengoku Drivers, the three Fruits instantly matured into, well, Mature Lockseeds. The ones Baron held in his hands were the Donguri (Acorn) Lockseed and Kurumi (Walnut) Lockseed while Gaim had gotten a Matsubokkuri (Pine Cone) Lockseed. Two of the three Lockseeds were the signature Lockseeds of Gridon and Kurokage, their enemies. _'Ugh, I can already feel the suspicious glare Marine is giving us.'_

And she was. It was a very fierce one too.

Baron gave her a grunt to say 'Save it', and tossed the Kurumi Lockseed at Blossom, much to her surprise. He then walked over towards another tree, and plucked another Lockseed Fruit, getting a copy of Gaim's Orange Lockseed. "Want it?" Baron asked Gaim, holding the Lockseed in front of him.

"Nah, still got this. Give me the next one you find." As he said that, Gaim motioned towards his Driver, specifically his cut-open Orange Lockseed. Baron nodded in response before stashing the Lockseed away into his pocket space that he had found that he had. It looked like it was where his Mango Lockseed went while he wasn't using it, since he didn't have a Lockseed Holder like Gaim did. He wondered why only Gaim had one to begin with, before putting it out of his mind. After all, they might find never-before-seen Lockseeds!

"Gah," Gaim groaned, rubbing the part of his helmet his temples were under.

"What's wrong?" Blossom wondered.

"I'm getting a headache again," Gaim complained as he plucked a random Lockseed Fruit. It instantly matured into another Pine Lockseed. "Oi, Baron," he called, tossing the pineapple padlock at his partner. This was the general way things progressed as the four walked through the forest.

* * *

Nearby, a certain trio of Riders were standing in a tree, watching the Cures and their Rider allies go through the place.

"Well, this is certainly interesting," Bravo commented, as he watched Gaim and Baron pluck Lockseed Flowers, letting them mature into full blown Lockseeds, and tossing the ones they didn't want or need to the Pretty Cure girls behind them. "I do wonder if this means you'll stop just summoning Inves to deal with them, Kurokage?" he questioned.

Kurokage was silent. As he stood there, his fingers kept clenching over the device on the side of his Driver. Bravo noticed where he was looking and sighed.

"You know, that wasn't my idea, mon ami. It was Sabaku's," he mentioned.

"We're not friends, Bravo. I only help you because I don't have a choice. You'd do well to remember that," Kurokage said stoically.

"Say that again, I dare you!" Gridon yelled at him. How dare this ungrateful bastard disregard the boss like this?!

"Calm down, Gridon. It's not like it really matters in the end," Bravo shrugged. Just like Kurokage had said, he wasn't really taking anything seriously. "Now go get those clowns out of my forest," he commanded. Gridon eagerly leaped down, while Kurokage stood there for a bit.

"I take no pleasure in telling you this, Kurokage, but Sabaku told me that if you don't actually fight them from now on, all agreements will be terminated," Bravo pointed out.

Kurokage twitched, before leaping down. Bravo sighed, leaning back into the tree. _'Why do I have such freaky dreams all the time?'_ he thought to himself. Meanwhile, a certain blond head poked its way down from a higher branch. Its owner could hear his thoughts and was flabbergasted.

 _'Does he honestly think this is a dream? That's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard, especially if he's really been here for over a year.'_ After thinking that, this world's Woman of Beginnings, for it was her, vanished elsewhere into the forest.

* * *

"Hey, look, another Melon!"

"That's great, Baron! Guess that means we both have one."

"Yeah. Hey, check that one."

"Okay. And... it is yet another Matsubokkuri."

"Again?! That's the fifth one we've gotten today!"

"I can't help it if that's what we get."

"Yeah yeah. Hm? Hey, what're these?" Baron had just picked three Lockseed Fruits off of a tree, but when they matured, the resulting Lockseeds were strange.

Gaim looked at them with curiosity. "I don't remember those," he commented.

"I thought you could only pick thirteen types of regular Lockseed?" Baron wondered. After all, the bikes and Himawari didn't count. Bikes were bikes, and Himawari was useless.

"Well, considering the Lemon Lockseed is L.S. - 99, it does make sense that there would have to be Lockseeds to fill the gap between Kiwi and it," Gaim postulated.

"Regardless, what are these?" Baron said, shaking the Lockseeds in his hand around. Because two of the Lockseeds were completely different. For starters, they were based on a papaya and a pear. The Lockseeds were stamped L.S. - 14 and L.S. - 16 respectively. But considering that Lockseeds labelled above 13 never appeared in the show, 99 only appearing in Gaim Gaiden 2, where did these come from?

Then there was the one that was _really_ special. L.S. - 15. _Cherry_. There had actually been a normal Cherry Lockseed to complement Cherry Energy? Well, they'd have to take a good look at that one later.

"Dibs on the Papaya," Baron commented, tossing the pear- ( _"Nashi,"_ a voice whispered into the back of their minds) -sorry, Nashi and Cherry Lockseeds at Gaim.

"What?! Why?! I hate pears!" Gaim complained. Although he certainly wasn't going to complain about the Cherry Lockseed, pears were something he absolutely hated.

While they were arguing about that though, Kurokage and Gridon showed up behind them. Marine noticed them out of the corner of her eye then.

"Watch out!" she tried to warn, but Gridon swooped in and manage to whack Baron in the back, sending him rolling across the forest floor. Gaim dodged Kurokage's halfhearted swipe, and leaped over next to Baron, helping him up. Right now, they were in the middle of unknown territory, and the Precure couldn't do much since their arms were full. Gaim decided what they had to do.

He held himself up in a serious manner. Baron could tell that whatever Gaim was going to say was very important. "I believe that in circumstances like this, there is only one thing to do."

 _'Which is?'_ Baron mentally questioned.

"Let's get the hell out of here!"

 _'Works for me!'_

With that said, the four of them ran out of there.

"Hey! Get back here!" Gridon squawked, running after them. Kurokage silently followed. From behind a tree, the WoB poked her head out.

 _'I wonder if that was a good idea or not, making those,'_ she wondered to herself. She considered it, but just shrugged. There wasn't much else she could do right now. She vanished again.

* * *

 _'Gah, why am I getting a headache_ now _of all times?!'_ Gaim groused to himself as the four of them ran through Helheim back to the zipper they had come through. He knew that technically what he suggested could have been seen as cowardly, but he also knew that they were at a disadvantage fighting in there. They didn't know the terrain, and Blossom and Marine's hands were full too. It just would have ended badly for everyone concerned.

Once they finally managed to exit the Forest, they spun back around to get ready for combat. The new crowd that had formed while they were gone soon dispersed in fear. They quickly threw every single last Lockseed they had collected in Helheim into Gaim's Pocket Space, since for some reason he had a larger one. With that done, they needed to act fast, as the other two were probably right on their tails. Luckily, Gaim had a plan.

"Alright, listen up." Everyone turned to him. "We're going to have to split them up and take them on separately. Blossom and I will deal with Kurokage, while Baron and Marine deal with Gridon. Everyone understand?" Baron was seething, but he nodded his acceptance anyway.

As Gridon exited the Crack, a familiar sound was heard from the direction of Baron.

 **COME ON! BANANA SQUASH!**

"Come here, you jerk!" he yelled, using his **Spear Victory** attack to push Gridon out of the way and over a few blocks.

Marine squawked at this. "Hey! Wait for me!"she yelled, leaving to go join him.

And with that, Kurokage exited from the Forest. He looked around and didn't see Gridon anywhere. "Oh thank goodness, he's gone," he sighed.

"Kurokage," Gaim greeted.

"Gaim. Sorry about this, but I really do have no choice but to fight you right now," Kurokage said, dropping into a guard position.

"Why? Give me a reason why we need to do this," Gaim pleaded. Blossom was silent next to him. She was unsure of what to really do in this situation.

"All I can say is, if I don't, somebody very important will have something very bad happen to them. That's why," Kurokage decisively, yet ambiguously, said. "Spear heaven and hell! Kamen Rider Kurokage!" he declared. He leapt forward at them. Blossom engaged him first, with Gaim hanging back to see how to properly counter.

Blossom started off with punches and kicks, but Kurokage kept dodging them all effortlessly. Eventually, he started hitting back with his Kagematsu. Blossom tried parrying, but she eventually became overbalanced and fell onto the ground. Gaim noted Kurokage's fighting style with interest: it was rough, yet polished if that made any sense. It was a style that was forged in battle, with none of the flairs of a trained style.

He was about to plunge the spear into Blossom's side, just a nick really, when Gaim intercepted with the Naginata Mode of his Musou Saber and Daidaimaru. He managed to push Kurokage away from her and started going on the offensive himself, catching the Black Shadow off guard. Gaim managed to strike Kurokage's armor a few times, drawing sparks. However, by that point, Kurokage had recovered, locking his spear with Gaim's naginata. They were in the stalemate of a blade lock, when Blossom came in from the side.

 **"Blossom Punch!"**

Blossom blindsided him for a change, and punched him right in the gut. This knocked him back and he gave an actual audible groan. "Gah! Not bad," Kurokage complimented. "Suppose it's time I step it up," he decided, pulling his Cutting Blade down.

 **SOIYA! MATSUBOKKURI AU LAIT!  
(PINE CONE AU LAIT!)**

Holding his spear like a javelin, dark energy surrounded it. He tossed the spear, with it multiplying by 10! The spears flew at the duo he was opposing. While Blossom backflipped out of the way, Gaim pulled his Cutting Blade down three times.

 **SOIYA! ORANGE SPARKING!**

With the Sparking initiated, Gaim's armor folded back into Fruit Mode on his head. He gave it a spin, using the spinning motion of the armor to deflect the spears. With them gone, the Orange refolded into its armor mode.

Blossom regrouped with him. "He's really strong," she said.

"Yeah," Gaim agreed. "I can see how he managed to fight off Gridon and Bravo by himself for a year. He's pretty much mastered using the Sengoku Driver. But that doesn't mean we can quit here!" he declared, removing his Orange Lockseed from his Driver.

 **LOCK OFF!**

"Eh?!" Blossom was shocked at his doing so. Seeing that, Gaim had to explain.

"Since he was so gracious enough to give us this earlier, I may as well use this," he explained, bringing out the Melon Lockseed they had snagged earlier that day.

 **MELON!**

"But isn't that risky?" Blossom asked.

"Life's full of risks, but we can't let that stop us! We have to push forward at all times, or we'll never get anywhere!" Gaim declared. _'Now if only I actually believed that.'_

Regardless of that, he put the Lockseed in his Driver's Drive Bay, slammed it closed over the Lock On Arm, then sliced it open with the Cutting Blade.

 **LOCK ON!**

 **SOIYA! MELON ARMS: TENKA GOMEN!  
(MELON ARMS! AUTHORIZED BY HEAVEN!)**

Gaim's Orange Arms disappeared. Out of a zipper in the air, a muskmelon appeared, dropping onto Gaim's head. It unfolded into armor that was similar to Orange Arms, save for being based off a melon of course. Even the helmet was similar, except for a little grip on the top that resembled the top of a melon. It finished folding in a splash, giving Gaim the Melon Defender shield in his left hand. This was Gaim Melon Arms!

"I may not be a Samurai Sentai, but I'm still going to go forth," Gaim declared, drawing his Musou Saber and settling into a ready stance.

"So, that's how it's going to be, huh? Come at me then!" Kurokage declared, holding the Kagematsu ready. At Gaim's nod, he and Blossom both ran forward.

Blossom was undoubtedly the faster of the pair. Precure are unencumbered by armor, so even the fastest Rider can't hope to compete, unless they were using something like Clock Up. However, Gaim himself was a bit faster now due to his use of Melon Arms, so Kurokage quickly found himself off guard more often. Blossom sped around him with punches and kicks, with some interjections from Gaim's Musou Saber. At this, Kurokage brought down his Cutting Blade.

 **SOIYA! MATSUBOKKURI SQUASH!  
(PINE CONE SQUASH!)**

"Take this! **Kage Nui Tsuki (Shadow Sewing Stab)!** " he declared, stabbing at Gaim with his finisher. Gaim managed to deflect it with the Melon Defender however, long enough for Blossom to swoop in.

 **"Blossom Impact!"** With that attack, Kurokage got knocked back across the area they were fighting in.

"Not bad. You two certainly have promise," Kurokage said in a complimentary tone. "Well, that's enough for me. I'm out of here," he said, opening a Budou Lockseed to summon another Byakko Inves.

He then threw the Budou Lockseed at Gaim, who caught it out of curiosity. "Oops, I 'accidentally' dropped that," Kurokage said monotonously. "Later!" he said, jumping into the still-open zipper, which closed behind him. There was still the Inves to deal with, but that would be taken care of easily.

"Cure Blossom, I do believe it is time for the finish. Let's go!" Gaim declared.

"Right!" she agreed. Gaim pulled his Cutting Blade down while Blossom powered up an attack.

 **SOIYA! MELON SQUASH!**

 **"Rider and Cure Defender Shower!"** At the same time as Blossom unleashed her **Blossom Shower** , Gaim twirled the Melon Defender around and tossed at the Byakko Inves, destroying it with a flurry of cherry blossoms and sliced melons! They smiled at each other, congratulating themselves on a job well done. Now, I wonder how the other two are doing.

* * *

"Tch. Come on, you bastard! I'm in a bad mood today, and I need to blow off some steam!" Baron yelled out at Gridon as they began attacking each other. However, Baron was _too_ angry right now, so he was fighting really sloppily. This let Gridon get more potshots in at Baron than he would otherwise get. With the latest one knocking him back, Baron rolled back on the ground. Marine decided that it was her turn to attack Gridon. While Baron wasn't happy about it, the beat-down Gridon gave him calmed him down long enough to think rationally.

Personally, he blamed Momotaros. Because Momotaros fights like a berserker and Baron really needed stress relief. So he began fighting like Momotaros. As you can obviously see, it did not work out for him.

* * *

 _Meanwhile, in the Sands of Time..._

The Train of Time, DenLiner. Will its next stop be the past or the-?

"ACHOO! Ah! My pudding! This is all your fault, Turtle!"

"Wait, Sempai-!"

 ***CRASH***

... I guess we're not going to find out right now.

* * *

Back to the fight, considering that she had more speed than most Riders, Baron included, Marine had managed to get a lot more shots in than Baron or Gaim would dream of getting.

 **"Marine Impact!"**

 **COME ON! DONGURI SPARKING!**

Marine tried one of her special physical attacks, but Gridon countered by turning his armor back into its Nut Mode. Apparently, it had a strong enough defense to take the **Marine Impact** head on. Marine backflipped towards Baron in response as she prepared to continue her attack, though he stopped her.

"Wait!"

"What?!"

"We need to plan something here. I mean, yeah you're managing to handle him well right now..."

"Well, of course! Pretty Cures are the best after all!"

 _'You're making it very hard for me not to keelhaul you, you know that?'_

Baron let out a sigh before replying. "Marine! If we don't plan for this, we're going to end up getting our asses kicked!"

"So, basically, you're saying to follow everything you say?" Marine asked in a deadpan tone.

"Right! So let's go!" Baron got up and prepared to charge at Gridon alongside Marine. However...

Marine narrowed her eyes at Baron. "How do I know this isn't some kind of trap?"

 _'Really? Really?! NOW OF ALL TIMES?! That's it! You asked for it, you little brat!'_ Baron viciously though. He immediately clenched his hands into fists and then-

...held his knuckles at the side of her forehead and began to quickly twist them.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! That hurts!"

"Good, you annoying little brat! Alright, time to get serious! Gridon is going down!"

"Hey! You think I trust you after that?!" Marine said as she held her head in pain.

Before Baron could say anything though, a familiar cry made him freeze.

 **COME ON! DONGURI AU LAIT!**

 _'SHIT! That little piece of-!'_ "Marine! Watch out!" Baron warned Marine. There was no time to lose, he quickly put himself between Gridon and Marine, taking Gridon's **Gridon Impact** straight to the back. "GAH!" he yelled, as he went down. But he still had enough presence to stab Gridon with the Banaspear so that he'd leap backwards.

"W-Why did you-?" Marine whispered.

"Why did I protect you?" Baron could've used a lighter tone than outright snapping at her, but he's a blunt person. "We're... friends. Aren't we?" he muttered in pain.

"Friends? But I-"

"It happens. We just suddenly came out of nowhere bearing the same name as the enemy. Of course you would be suspicious. You annoyed me with that, but don't friends get suspicious of each other and annoy each other as well? No matter what, until our friendship is broken, we're friends until the end!" Baron declared to her, before painfully getting up. _'To all of you who see this adventure, beg to God you never ever get thrown into an anime show or video game. You might end up dying before you reach the happy ending.'_

Marine considered this uneasily. Even after all of her suspicion, he thought of her as a friend? And if _Baron_ thought of her as a friend, then that meant Gaim must too. She was needlessly suspecting people who thought of her as a friend? She shook it off for now though, as it wasn't the place for it.

"So, Baron! How about you use another Lockseed?!" she asked, trying to keep her mind away from the subject.

 _'Trying to help me out with advice as well. Thanks, Erika. You're a good friend, even if you are a thick-headed girl most of the time.'_ "Heh. Okay then," Baron whispered as he took out a Donguri Lockseed. "You know what they say: fight fire with fire. Or in this case, acorn with acorn," With that, he popped open the Lockseed.

 **DONGURI!  
(ACORN!)  
**

 **LOCK ON!**

 **COME ON! DONGURI ARMS: NEVER GIVE UP!**

Out of a Crack, another Donguri Arms Part appeared in the air. It landed on Baron, folding into armor exactly like Gridon's (duh) and arming Baron with the Donkachi. This was Baron Donguri Arms!

Baron immediately began to twirl his Donkachi as he and Marine prepared to charge at Gridon. In fact, they waited so long that Gridon lost his patience. "Come here! I'll make it all stop!" he declared, charging right at them. But this time, Baron was prepared to fight _calmly_. When Gridon lunged with the Donkachi, Baron blocked it and immediately moved to steal Gridon's Donkachi right out of his hand. Having two Donkachi, Baron kicked Gridon in the stomach to get rid of him.

"Oh, Marine~" Baron playfully called out to Marine. "Wanna play Whack-a-Mole?" he asked, holding out one of the Donkachi for her to take.

"My pleasure!" Marine sounded a bit too eager for a normal person's liking. Baron, on the other hand, is messed up. To him, it almost sounded like music to his ears.

And so, one after the other, they continued to whack Gridon with their Donkachi. "Would"*"You"*WHACK*"Stop"*WHACK*"DOING THAT?!" Gridon yelled as he continued to be knocked back.

"NEVER!" the two who were harassing him declared, slamming their Donkachi right into his chest. This had the effect of knocking Gridon clean across the area.

"Damn you both! I swear vendetta!" Gridon declared. He took out a Pine Lockseed from somewhere and clicked it to summon a Shika Inves. The Inves roared before shooting fire at Marine and Baron. Yeah, great idea there, flame brain. Shoot fire at the water-aligned Cure.

 **"Marine Shoot!"** As should be expected, Marine fired off her **Marine Shoot** , putting out the fire and knocking the Inves back. At this, Baron and Marine figured they should get rid of the Inves first.

"Alright, Baron! Let's end this with a bang!" Marine cheered. Baron smirked at this under his helmet and pressed down on his Cutting Blade.

 **COME ON! DONGURI SQUASH!**

 **"Double Twister Crash!"** Baron and Marine spun at high speeds, slamming their Donkachi at the Shika Inves. This had the effect of blasting it off into the air before it exploded in fiery flames! Baron and Marine high-fived before turning to where Gridon was. Or rather, where he should have been. Gridon was long gone, and judging by how Marine's Donkachi suddenly disappeared into light, Baron's guess was that he had powered down as well.

"Hey, Marine?" Baron asked. This grabbed her attention.

"Yeah, what is it?" she wondered.

"Sorry, but I just wanna sleep right now," Baron told Marine, before darkness took his mind into blissful slumber. He proceeded to fall forward, his Sengoku Driver disengaging the transformation. Marine cried out in shock, catching him before he could fall over completely. She glumly stared at his unconscious body.

 _'This was my fault.'_

* * *

Erika stared guiltily at the unconscious form of Sora, who lay unconscious on his bed. Even after all the things she had said about them, he still called her a friend despite the fact that he was only hurt because of her! Why was she always so stupid?!

"Hey." She turned to see Tsukasa, who had a fairly even expression on his face. She gulped, thinking he was going to berate her for what she did. But as it turned out, he did nothing of the kind.

"You know, I may have only met Sora recently, but I feel like we've known each other for a long time." He turned to look her straight in the eye. "So, I feel confident telling you that he wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over something like this.

Erika was shocked and looked at Sora's unconscious body. Could it really be true?

Tsukasa just shook his head. He knew that she wasn't going to believe him until Sora actually woke up. In the meantime, it was getting late and somebody needed to go home. "Go home, Erika-san. I'll take care of him."

With one last fleeting look at Sora, Erika finally left for Fairy Drop, her family's fashion store. As soon as he was alone, Tsukasa started trembling, sitting down as carefully as he could.

"I don't think...it really sunk in what we were doing before now," he whispered to himself. But this wake-up call had snapped him out of his prior mindset. This wasn't a game. This was real, with real injuries, real people, and real challenges.

"Helheim...just why is it here? And why weren't those people drawn to eat Lockseed Fruit?" he asked himself. Things weren't adding up, and it was scaring him. He honestly hoped Sora had an answer for him, because if they couldn't find out what was going on...everything would be gone.

 _ **Episode 03 - Fin**_

* * *

 ** _OathToOblivion_ : So...yeah, the original Episode 3 was kind of...**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : Passable?**

 ** _OathToOblivion_ : I was going to say stupid. Why would I be flippin' jealous?! That's something out of bad anime!**

 **...Move your fingers away from the keyboard, you people I can see doing so. Precure is not a bad anime.**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : And yet for some reason I can't bring myself to watch it unless necessary. Like for this story.**

 **But hey, ourselves back then are different from ourselves now. So yeah, that's subplot is thrown out of the window considering how stupid it is in the grand scheme of things.**

 ** _OathToOblivion_ : Yep. Finally _finally_ , though, we're reaching an episode we didn't already rewrite. Time to go at this at full throttle!**

 **...No, wait, that's Drive. Frick.**

 ** _Symbolic Joker_ : Eh whatever. So long as our lives burn bright, this story will be finished! This I swear!**

 **...Oh, wait... that's Ghost and El Tigre. Whoops.**

 ** _OathToOblivion_ : Well, at any rate...**

 **Next Time on HeartCatch Pretty Cure - Just Live More Redux: ****Never Before Seen Arms! Lemons, Pears, Papayas, Oh My!**

 **And we will see you guys in the next episode! Buh-bye!  
**


End file.
